【每日邮报】Pictured: The egg so big that it took poor Efel the hen 30 minutes to lay

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Pictured: The egg so big that it took poor Efel the hen 30 minutes to lay
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1191530/Pictured-The-gigantic-egg-big-took-poor-Efel-hen-30-minutes-lay.html
By Daily Mail Reporter    Last updated at 10:31 AM on 10th June 2009



Gabrielle Needler found this giant egg laid by pet chicken Efel

That's a good egg: Efel the nine-month-old pet chicken has now returned to her regular one-egg-a-day production

Poor Efel the pet chicken needed a bit of egging on for her latest effort.

It took her a week of preparation and half an hour of pushing before she could unleash her creation on the world.

But her prize egg was worth the wait - it is three times the size of a regular egg and one of the biggest ever recorded.

Her owner, 11-year-old Gabrielle Needler, from Reigate, Surrey, was shocked when she saw the egg in the coop.

She said: 'Efel didn't lay for a week and we wondered why. Then she laid this massive egg so she was obviously saving it all up.

'It took her half an hour to lay this one - normally it only takes about five minutes.

'When I went to collect it, I thought: "Wow that's big".

'I looked at the egg carrier and then the egg and thought there was no way it was going to fit in there.'

The egg weighed in at 194g, or about 7oz.


Efel, an average-sized Gingernut Ranger, and her henhouse-mate, Doreen, a Miss Pepperpot breed, were Christmas presents for Gabrielle after pleading with her parents, Kim and Henry, 'for years'.

She said: 'Interestingly, Efel is the smaller of the two birds and is still a youngster at just 40 weeks old. Both birds usually lay one egg a day on average.'

Kim, 42, an artist, said: 'Gabrielle is animal crazy. We have a mini-zoo here, but she always wanted chickens.

'Efel had laid quite a big one and a strangely pointy one before but nothing like this.

'You would think it would have damaged her but she seems perfectly fine. She's gone back to her normal one a day.'

The family have written to Guinness to see if it is a record breaker, but have since learned that the biggest ever recorded was an egg-ceptional 340g, from an English hen in 1896.

Kim said: 'I can only imagine it was a giant hen - or the poor girl must have suffered horribly.

'I reckon ours must at least be the biggest in the country for a century. Gabrielle is so proud she won't let anyone else hold it.'

Gabrielle plans to blow out the yolk for a giant fried egg then decorate the shell.