Brize Norton family to auction round chicken egg

The family hope they will be able to rescue more chickens with the proceeds they make from the egg

A family is hoping someone will shell out for a rare spherical egg, laid by their rescue hen, when it is auctioned.

Annabel Mulcahy, from Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, found her hen Twinksie had laid the egg - reportedly a "one-in-a-billion" chance - at the weekend.

She and daughters, Olivia and Emily, are keeping the egg in their fridge in "a lot of tissue paper, in a special Fort Knox container".

They plan to use the proceeds to rescue more chickens.

The family's rescue hen Twinksie laid the spherical egg

"The coop we have at the moment is absolutely at capacity and I thought it would be a really nice idea that [Twinksie] laid this egg and she wants to try to rescue some of her friends from slaughter," Mrs Mulcahy said.

"We're using the proceeds hopefully to either extend the barn or what would be amazing is if we could get another coop house."

The British Egg Information Service has previously described round eggs as "unusual but not rare", adding that they were more common when hens first started laying.

In 2015, a round egg laid in a garden in Latchingdon, Essex, fetched £480 at auction.

The egg is currently being kept in their fridge to keep it safe