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80
Rat Destruction.—Poison was laid as follows by the
Rat Officer during the year:—
Private houses 257
Other premises 19
Sewers 421
£17 3s. was paid by property owners to the Council
for the services of the Rat Officer in connection with the
above work.
Poultry Keeping.
During the past year or two many complaints
reached this department as to the sanitary condition
of premises, particularly in back yards, used for the
keeping of poultry. I came to the conclusion that it was
necessary to draft some regulations which might be
used by, and form a standard for, the Sanitary Inspectors
in this regard. I, therefore got in touch with the
National Poultry Council, and after some correspondence
I drew up the following set of regulations,
which were approved by the Council:—
(a) 1. Fowls kept in back yards less than 400 sq. ft. in size
should be kept on the intensive system, i.e., their
run should be completely roofed over; the floor should
be of some hard material, for example cement, wood
or hard beaten earth, upon which should be placed
a sufficient amount of scratching material.
2. The run must be boarded up sufficiently high all round
so as to prevent scratching material being scratched
out into the yard.
3. Fowls should not have less than 6 sq. ft., of floor space
per bird in the run.
4. Fowls should not on any account be allowed out of the
hen-house into the yard.
5. Hen-houses must not exceed 6 ft. in height and must be
placed as far from a dwelling-house as possible.
6. Not more than one-third of the total yard space should
be taken up with hen-houses.
7. The greatest cleanliness must be maintained, manure
must be removed regularly, and no food left lying
about so as to attract rats and other vermin.