AS small as a 20p piece and light as a feather, you would need some pretty tiny bread soldiers for this egg.
But owner Paul Rae has no plans for making a meal of his find and hopes to get his egg into the record books.
The B&B owner made the unexpected discovery on Sunday while collecting the eggs for breakfast at his home in Humshaugh, Northumberland.
“I live in a farmhouse which is now a bed and breakfast and we keep chickens, and I was just out checking the boxes when I found it with a couple of the other eggs,” said 52-year-old Paul.
“It was so tiny, about the size of a 20p piece. Because it was with the others eggs, I knew it couldn’t be anything else.
“We were in with a chance for having the largest egg for the record books last year, and now it’s at the complete other end of the spectrum,” said Paul, who runs Walwick Farm House B&B with his wife Margaret, 54.
Paul’s find comes at the same time Harry Evans found an egg he claimed was barely bigger than a 5p piece at his farm near Bakewell, Derbyshire.
But dad-of-three Paul insists his is smaller. “His weighed 7.3g but mine was just five grams,” he said.
“It’s certainly not longer than 2.5cms which his was, it’s less than that in length.
“It really is about the size of a 20p piece, I know 5p got mentioned for his, but the egg was substantially bigger than that,” said Paul.
The Humshaugh egg came in at about 2.5cm by 2cm weighing just 5g, whereas Mr Evans’ is the same measurements but weighed slightly more at 7.3g.
Now Paul is hoping to hoping to beat the Bakewell man to the record books.
“There is no category for the world’s smallest chicken egg as far as I know, so I am going to try and get it recorded tonight,” he said.
But sadly they can not say which of their four hens, known to the couple as “Margaret’s girls”, the egg came from. The B&B owner, who set up the business last year with his wife of 16 years, is a trained chef and has travelled the world providing catering for oil rigs.
“I have been a chef all my life, doing catering work around the world and I have never seen anything like that in my life,” he said.
“You would need pretty small soldiers for that one.”
The couple, whose seven-bedroom B&B also boasts a restaurant for dinners and Sunday lunches, are now planning on getting their find logged in the Guinness Book of Records.
