why is Greenwich a good place for hens?

Why have chickens in Greenwich? (or why is Greenwich a good place for hens?)

Approx 100,000 dozen eggs are consumed each week by the 200,000 population of Greenwich.

This is the produce from 200,000 laying hens.

Roughly half of these will now be free range. 

The rest from cages or barn style producers.

(cages are still permitted, only they must be slightly bigger and have a little section to allow hens to scratch... at a piece of metal floor!).

Almost all of these will travel a minimum of 80 miles to get into the stores and outlets within the borough.

Only approximately 0.5% of these eggs would be from hens within the borough. Approximately a total of 1000 hens kept in backyards, city farms etc.

Even in an urban environment like greenwich there is scope for more in the right way. Large static houses are not welcome as land is in demand for housing or industry.

However small, mobile houses are better for the hens anyway. They have better access to a varied foraging landscape and this is directly reflected in the quality of the eggs.

(large, static houses are an intensive solution. At the very best only half of the hens would ever make any use of the land provided to them and that must be managed to avoid fowl-sick land. It is usually grassland that is there to gain the free-range status).

Plenty of scope to keep more, Greenwich has plenty of open space and by piloting a technically advanced yet traditionally based system our project may lead to an appropriate and rewarding way to integrate more into the community.