Albany's village chooks face the chop

By ANNE BESTON

A gang of marauding chickens need to find good homes, fast.

The North Shore City Council wants to cull a flock of about 200 hens and roosters that, it says, are spreading beyond the council-run park they inhabit at the old Albany Village north of Auckland.

The birds strut into local shops, roosters crow at the crack of dawn and the birds attract a range of undesirables including wild cats and ferrets, said council spokesman Paul Higgins.

"They destroy the gardens in Kell Park, go into the main street and shops and things like that," he said.

"They are also starting to move out of the park and setting up little colonies elsewhere, so they're actually spreading."

But the chooks have at least one local on their side.

Albany community co-ordinator Robyne Pringle is desperately looking for homes for the "iconic" chickens before they are "dispatched in the traditional manner".

Some of them were special, even fancy, breeds and some the result of Kell Park's "very own unique breeding programme".

The chickens were an attraction at the village, Mrs Pringle said, and children loved to feed them.

"Until now the council has allowed a local family to remove a few occasionally," she said.

"Unfortunately, local people keep dumping their unwanted chickens in the park because they know they'll survive, but the park can't sustain the numbers and the birds are becoming a nuisance."

She wants to find the birds good homes where they are cared for and not stuck in cages.

The council has promised it will transport the chooks as far as Taupo if necessary, presumably to avoid that "Council kills chooks" headline.

The council was also happy for about 50 chickens to remain, said Mr Higgins, to retain the unique flavour they brought to the village.