A farmer was left shell-shocked after one of her chickens laid an egg FOUR TIMES larger than normal.
Stunned Diane Chanin, 53, discovered the monster as she collected eggs at her farm in Bickleigh, near Exeter, Devon.
The huge egg, which weighs a whopping 180 grams, was laid by 22-week-old hen and is the largest ever produced by one Diane’s 1500 chickens.
A medium sized chicken egg weighs around 50 grams, meaning the beast is nearly four times bigger than normal.
Diane, who runs the free-range farm with husband Norman, 55, said it was the biggest chicken egg she had ever seen.
Mother-of-two Diane said: ”It is the biggest egg we have ever seen and we’ve been keeping hens for more than 20 years.
”We check all the hens regularly and she had shown no sign of any discomfort on the day she laid it. She was happily clucking round the farm.
”When we came out later we found a huge surprise and couldn’t believe it. We checked on her and she was absolutely fine and she has laid normal size eggs every day since.
”She’s about five months old. When they are young, hens lay smallish eggs, but they get larger as the hen gets older. This is the largest one I’ve ever seen.
”Soon we are going to crack it open really soon to see how many yolks it has. It is quite common for them to have two yolks, but it’s so big we think there might be three in there.”
Diane said the farm is always very busy, getting eggs ready to sell to supermarkets but the family had been taking time to show everyone who visited them the amazing egg.
She said: ”Our eggs go to a picking station, where they are graded and sent on to supermarkets, but I don’t think they would have known what to do with an egg as big as this.
”I’m really proud of the hen, she doesn’t seem to have been put off laying even though it must have been a bit painful.”
* The book of Guinness World Records states the largest ever egg was laid by a Black Minorca hen in England in 1896 which weighed in at nearly 12oz (340 grams) .
