A hen has laid Britain’s smallest egg in time for Easter – which is the size of a 50p COIN.
Stunned Chloe Heath-Byard, 15, was collecting eggs at her grandmother’s house when she spotted the tiny shell, measuring just 1.3 inches tall and 1 inch wide.
An average hen’s egg is 2.3 inches tall and 1.75 inches wide, meaning the tiny egg is half the size of a normal one.
The shell was laid by one of the five hens kept by Chloe’s gran Lin Byard in Longhope, Glos.
Chloe said: ”I went into the hutch to pick up any eggs that had been laid and was really shocked. It was tiny, really small.
”It’s about the same size as a 50p coin and at first I thought something else must have got into the hutch and laid it but that isn’t possible.
”None of the chickens have ever laid one that small before. It was a huge shock.”
Grandmother-of-three Lin, 56, has kept eggs for her passion cake baking for more than 25 years.
She currently has three cockerels and five chickens at her home – but has never seen an egg as small as the one laid last Tuesday.
”I couldn’t believe it when I saw the egg,” she said. ”It is definitely a chicken egg though.
”It must be the smallest egg in Britain, it really is tiny. I only hope it doesn’t start a trend for our hens because we don’t want any more eggs this small.
”It is particularly funny because Dolly lays such big eggs in Huntley.”
Chloe and Lin are planning to preserve the egg by filling it with plaster of Paris and say they will keep it for as long as possible.
We keep cjickens and quite often when they come to the end of lay they produce very small eggs.. just enjoy the novelty of having them.. such good fun when entertaining guests!
drill a hole in the bottom, drain the contents, rinse in javex allow to dry then spray with a clear lacquer.. it will last forever