Chicken before egg, literally!

A hen produced a live chick in a freak birth at a poultry farm in central Sri Lanka, a veterinary surgeon said today. The vet in charge of the town of Welimada, P R Yapa, said the egg appeared to have incubated inside the hen for 21 days and the hen died when it gave birth to the chick.

A hen produced a live chick in a freak birth at a poultry farm in central Sri Lanka, a veterinary surgeon said Friday.

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The vet in charge of the town of Welimada, P R Yapa, said the egg appeared to have incubated inside the hen for 21 days and the hen died when it gave birth to the chick.

"I had only heard about such aberrations, but I was able to see it for myself today," doctor Yapa told AFP when contacted by telephone.

He said the free-range farm owners alerted the local veterinary authorities after the highly unusual phenomenon and he performed a post-mortem examination to confirm the cause of death.

"There were lacerations and a tear of the reproductive tract that caused the death," Yapa said. "The baby is doing well."