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Family-run farm Kinswood Eggs primarily based in Brooks Green ended up having to cull 391,000 chickens and destroy 1.5 million eggs when hen flu struck in 2022.
Now farm proprietor Mark Beckett is looking for planning permission from Horsham District Council to diversify the business and alter the usage of quite a few former hen sheds and a packing building into storage and lightweight industrial models.
Agents for the farm – planning and improvement firm White & Sons – in a press release to the council, mentioned the farm was initially producing 104,000,000 eggs a 12 months to clients alongside the south coast, London, Hampshire and Kent.
But it needed to cease manufacturing when hen flu struck. “This meant that the business had to cease operations,” mentioned the brokers, including: “The legislative requirements did not allow the producer to restock for 12 months following the outbreak and there is no guarantee that the flock would not become infected again.
“The applicant is restocking but this will be with a third of the number of birds previously kept, going from some 321,000 laying hens to 112,500 to limit the risk and recognising that many of the previous customers have been lost and made new arrangements elsewhere.”
This, they mentioned, meant that quite a few the farm buildings have been now not wanted for poultry manufacturing however may very well be re-used as storage and lightweight industrial models with minimal adjustments.
“The applicant has a real motive to hunt various business makes use of on condition that they’ve been unable to proceed egg manufacturing for no less than a 12 months. Whilst
the egg manufacturing is being reinstated, it is not going to be to the numbers beforehand utilized because of the threat of reinfection. The applicant now requires a extra balanced business which isn’t reliant on earnings from primarily the eggs alone.”
They added: “The change of use would create a more secure revenue stream to help sustain the wider farm business, repaying debts accrued over the period of closure and the costs associated with re-stocking the remaining units.”
