London, March 1 (IANS) Nature never ceases to amaze us — and a “perfectly spherical” chicken egg is possibly as amazing as it gets. The egg has attracted an “unbelievable” 480 pounds (around Rs.46,000/$741) on internet auction site eBay.
A Buff Orpington hen named “Ping Pong”, which belongs to Kim Broughton of Essex county in Britain, laid the unusually round egg on February 17, BBC reported on Sunday.
The egg, which has been fondly named the “Scarlett Johansson of the chicken world”, attracted 64 bids, but the identity of the winner was not known.
Broughton decided to auction the egg in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust after her friend’s son died from the disease.
Broughton said she was tempted to cook and eat the egg before being told it was “one-in-a-billion”.
She said: “I was literally about to crack it open to make a pancake when a mate saw the photo I put on Facebook and messaged me to say ‘Don’t do it!’
“Apparently somebody had sold one before for more than 90 pounds. So I thought ‘Great if I can sell it for that’.
“When it was at 20 pounds, I thought ‘Who’d pay that for an egg?’ and then it went through the roof. It’s unbelievable,” Broughton said.
Broughton, who said she was known as “the mad chicken woman”, said she was nervous about sending the egg through the post.
Broughton said she imagined the buyer was interested in preserving the rare egg, rather than eating it.