Scramble in bid to claim smallest egg

The hunt for Shropshire's smallest egg is becoming a race to the bottom as Easter approaches with people finding "eggstra" special tiny ones in chicken coops across the county.

David Gould, of Woore, near Market Drayton, said he was surprised when one of his bantams laid an egg barely one inch long.

But members of a Bishop's Castle family found an egg which they say could be even smaller, coming in at a seven eighths of an inch.

When Mr Gould discovered the tiny egg he said he could scarcely believe his eyes as it was barely bigger than a 20p coin.

"It was very, very small, much smaller than any egg I've seen them lay before," he said. "It's probably off one of the bantams as I have three of them and about six hens.

"I thought it was very strange because the bantam eggs are normally about two or three inches long."

In Bishop's Castle Annette Gehlen found a miniature egg laid by one of her hens in the garden at her home in Corporation Street a couple of weeks ago. It is just 21 millimetres long, about seven-eighths of an inch.

Annette and her partner Rob Marpole keep about nine hens and say it is the smallest egg they have ever collected.

Mr Marpole said the couple had kept hens for more than three years and added they were a big hit with their children Bethan, 14, Matthew, seven, and Leo, four.

It comes after Gareth Jones, of Weston Rhyn, near Oswestry, revealed his mother Jean Lloyd had found an egg laid by one of her hens measuring 2.5cms by 2cms.