Why Did the Chicken Block the Road?

Why Did the Chicken Block the Road?

• Chickens on the Road
• Mobile Phone Pictures
• What Next for the Escaped Chickens?
• Record Egg Sizes
• Efel the hen lays massive 7oz egg

Chickens on the Road

On October the 11th 2007 a lorry load of chickens were being taken from a farm where they were raised to the slaughterhouse.  2,500 birds managed to carryout a daring escape on the A80 near Haggs in Scotland.

When the lorry jack-knifed, true to form, instead of heading for the hills, like headless chickens they dashed about all over the dual carriageway.  What they did achieve was to bring much of the traffic between Glasgow and Stirling to a halt.

We would like to wish the lorry driver a speedy recovery, for him it was not funny as he sustained severe back injuries.  Naturally, there were casualties amongst the chickens and about 500 died in the escape.

A Modern Phenomenon - Mobile Phone Pictures

While 'Why did the chicken cross the road' is an old chestnut, photographing anything that moves on a mobile phone is a relatively modern phenomenon.

To the police officers and chicken catchers, who were trying to catch the birds, it was irritating when a fleet of amateur paparazzi snapped their best efforts to capture the chickens.

Those filming on mobile phones became so annoying and intrusive that the police despatched a special unit to take the registration numbers of the worst offenders.  At least 50 motorists can expect to receive £60 fixed penalty notices, (when the postal strike is over!).

Meanwhile most of the chickens, who had known nothing but a battery existence, were disorientated by their sudden exposure to wide open spaces and just hung around in groups waiting to be captured.  Local farmers said that wild chickens would have behaved in exactly the same stupid manner.  However, one chicken made his getaway....

What Next for the Escaped Chickens?

Those chickens that were captured were packaged in crated and sent to the processing plant.  However, entrepreneur were trying to decide how they could profit from this fowl play.  One budding tycoon had the idea of by buying up the escaped chickens and then selling them to restaurants, who could then serve them up: 'As seen on the A80'. 

So far his marketing success has been confined to fast food outlets on the A80 where they escaped - see picture to the right.

Record Egg Sizes

In the spring of 2008 we have seen the extremes of egg sizes.  Down in Cornwall, England a chicken laid a 4in (10cm) egg, which was over 8in (20cm) in circumference.  It weighed over 7 oz (200gm).  

Meanwhile a few weeks earlier in Lavenham, Suffolk, England another hen laid an egg measuring just 2.5cm long and 1cm in diameter.

Eggscruciating!

Wow That's Big Efel the hen lays massive 7oz egg

Efel the hen was left a little shell shocked after laying this monster egg. It took the gingernut ranger 30 minutes to squeeze out the whopper, which at 7oz is three times the size of a normal one.

Owner Gabrielle Needler, 11, of Reigate, Surrey, England, said, 'It normally only takes five minutes. I thought wow that's big.'

All Time Egg Record
Will and Guy can tell you that the biggest egg was 11oz, laid by an English hen in 1896.

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