Farm wants to expand egg production with new unit housing 32,000 chickens

Heal Eggs Ltd of Hazeldene has applied to Telford & Wrekin Council to expand their free-range egg production with a new £1.75m unit. 

Across their sites, the business already boasts 328,000 free-range laying hends, 112,000 colony laying hends and 48,000 pullet rearing places but the new unit will allow the business to add 32,000 new free-range hens to their stock. 

If approved, the new unit will be built at Drome Farm in Osbaston, where two free-range units are already located. The existing capacity at the farm is for 128,000 birds.

The company hopes to build the unit - which would be 122 metres by 24 metres - on the site of an existing semi-derelict grain drying and storage building. Plans include a range of automated systems for feeding, drinking, lighting and ventilation.

The new unit would provide a home for the hens from dusk to 8am, when 'pop holes' would open up and allow the chickens to access the external ranging areas - which extend to a minimum of one hectare for every 2,000 birds - 16 hectares (40 acres) in this case. 

Manure belts, located underneath each perch, would be emptied twice a week from the building into an agricultural trailer for disposal and used as fertiliser on agricultural land.

The application states that a deep clean of the building would take place at the end of each 70-week flock cycle when the birds are sold and replaced. 

Packing of eggs would be undertaken on site every morning, seven days a week, and the application states that any dead birds would be collected from within the buildings on a daily basis.

The proposal states that once operational, the expansion would require two additional full-time workers, and argues that the investment would "provide a significant contribution to the associated services industries within the poultry sector".

The full application is available to view online on Telford & Wrekin Council's planning portal using reference:  TWC/2024/0781