If plans go ahead, the big new visitor attraction at the Museum of Natural History in Braunschweig, Germany may answer the age-old question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
In this case, the chickens. A small flock of ten free-range chickens kept by a couple in Lower Saxony; the chickens are their hobby. A few weeks ago, they were surprised to find that one of their hens had laid a 184-gram egg, more than twice the size of an average jumbo chicken egg.
This week, the chickens did it again, with what may be the largest egg in the world (chicken egg, that is), a 209-gram whopper big enough to be an omelet all by itself. No explanation for the oversize ova; the chickens live on a regular feed of vegetables and grains.
No clear answer, either, for the slightly green cast of the shell. Museum scientist Andre Koch attributed the color to being laid by a chicken that’s an “Easter egger;” the report in TheLocal.de did not say whether he was joking.
