CENSUS OF POULTRY

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3468, 19 May 1934, Page 7

CENSUS OF POULTRY

- EFFECT OF REGISTRATION. There are likely to be heavy casualties in the poultry yards of New Zealand within the next month or so. All owners of more than twenty-four hens, and who sell eggs, will have to register their premises in the month of June and pay a- license fee. For those with twenty-five or twenty-six birds the prospects are favourable for roast fowl for Sunday dinners. The Poultry Runs Registration Bill, passed during last session of Parliament, comes into force on Ist June, and it stipulates that owners of more than twenty-four head of poultry must register. Poultry, for legislation purposes, means hens or ducks not less than six months old. If the total flock is’less than 100 then the fee-will be half a crown, with another similar sum. for every further hundred. A month is allowed for registration. Forms will be provided at all post offices throughout New Zealand, and poultry keepersj whether on a commercial basis or not, will be required to m,ake the necessary declaration and pay whatever amount is necessary. On mantv farms there will have to be a muster of the feathered flocks, for there are large numbers of farmers who have hens and ducks running about their yards. They do not know how many they have, and their sole interest, in the past, has been to see that the eggs were gathered from the hedges and other favourite layingplaces. Now they will have to round up the flocks and‘have a careful check made. Twenty-four is the limit, and the surplus will probably find their way to the table.