A chicken has been given a new lease of life after surviving a lorry [semi tractor-trailer] crash on the way to the slaughterhouse. As rescue workers rounded up 4,000 birds at the crash site in Winchester, Lucky escaped and hid in undergrowth.

She managed to survive in the countryside for eight days and is now being looked after by members of an animal welfare group.  Lucky was on her way to be slaughtered when the lorry crashed on the A272. The accident killed or injured 2,000 of the 6,000 broiler birds.

She was found by Rob Hill and Angie Greenaway, who are campaigners for the pressure group Compassion in World Farming ,The Daily Telegraph reports.

Mr Greenaway said: "Now she's being very well looked after by one of our other campaigners."

AN EGGSTATIC grandfather-of-eight may have the world's smallest chicken egg. 

Animal-lover George Graves, of Lower Gravel Road, Bromley, was over-the-moon when he found what he believes to be a record-breaker.  He went to his chicken coop to collect his morning breakfast he could not have been more "eggcited".  The egg, which is no bigger than a quail's, has been submitted to the Guinness Book of Records, which has no record of a smaller chicken egg.  He said: "I've never seen an egg so small and neither has anyone I know."

"I missed out on a tasty sandwich today but I cannot eat the world's smallest egg. I might sell it to a museum or a collector. It's just too soon to say what I'll do with it."  The chicken which laid the potentially record-setting egg is named Kiev after the popular Russian dish. Mr Graves said: "I am very proud of her. I'd love to have it X-rayed to see if it has a yoke in it. If I had left it to hatch, it might have been a super-small chicken."

An average sized chicken egg is 65mm x 45mm. 

A spokesman for the Guinness Book of Records said: "We have a record of the smallest egg and the largest chicken egg, but not the smallest chicken egg. We will considering Mr Graves' application." 

The 51-year-old has a lot of affection for his chickens and says he can tell which ones lay which eggs. "I'd know my chickens' eggs out of a hundred. They are very special to me," he said. 

RSPCA bird expert John Day believes the dark colour of the egg could have been caused by the amount of calcium in the food or the thickness of the shell.

FITZGERALD, Georgia -- Citizens will have something to crow about come March 16 with the celebration of the second annual Wild Chicken Festival.  As if the crowing ever stopped.

Fitzgerald is overrun -- some would say overscratched as well -- with chickens to be exact. Released in the woods by the Department of Natural Resources in the 1960s as a potential game bird, Burmese wild fowl have moved to town, flourished and become one of the local sights and near constant background noise.

Barry Peavey, co-chairman of the Jaycees-sponsored festival, wouldn't speculate on how many of the small, colorful chickens roost and strut in Fitzgerald's parks and neighborhoods. He acknowledges they cause a few minor problems.  "It's a love-hate relationship. The primary factor is whether you're a big gardener or landscaper," he said.  The chickens have a way of scratching all the pine straw out of landscape beds and they sometimes tend to take short flights into the grilles of cars.  Peavey said complaints that the birds are traffic hazards are way overblown.

"If you're dumb enough to swerve to miss one, you're the traffic hazard," he said. As Sage Strickland stood in his yard on a recent Saturday, a flock of about two dozen chickens pecked around his plants. The roosters zigzagged across his grass chasing each other away from the little hens.

Strickland said he feeds the chickens that congregate in his yard, as his late father did, but he ran out of food and hasn't bought any lately.  "My dad fed them every day before he passed away and got mad when kids chased them," Strickland said.

The birds resemble fighting game chickens with brilliant orange and yellow ruffs and gleaming black tail feathers. Strickland said he likes seeing them and, "They'll keep the bugs down."

Strickland's neighbor, George Whatley, watched some roosters walk up the lane behind their houses as others crowed in the distance.  "They don't bother me," he said. But then he added with a laugh, "They'll let you know when the sun comes up."  Joan Harris, a Fitzgerald native who lives on St. Simons Island, said her aunt chases the birds out of her garden with a broom.

Although the birds leave Fitzgerald open for a little ridicule, they are exotic, beautiful and more athletic than the average chicken.  "I hear they can fly the length of a football field. That's the way they measure distances in Fitzgerald," Harris said. The festival will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an emphasis on camping, hunting, fishing and outdoor crafts. 

[Our thanks to Riley Woodard for pointing out that this festival takes place in Fitzgerald, GEORGIA, not Fitzgerald, FLORIDA as was originally reported in the newspaper article we quoted.]