Hens eggs exploding because of hot-air balloons

Hens are dropping dead on a free-range farm because hot-air balloons and low-flying aircraft are causing their eggs to explode inside them, it has been claimed. Abbi Vincent-Lloyd said she lost 30 hens on days when balloons were flying low over her Herefordshire farm.

She claimed the stress of seeing the enormous balloons overhead caused them to run for cover. It is as they desperately try to find shelter that they bump into each other or their surroundings, exploding the eggs inside them, she said.

This in turn causes an infection, which is thought to have led to scores of them dying.



Miss Vincent-Lloyd, 32, said post mortems of the animals revealed they had died from peritonitis, developed from the egg being released inside them. She said: "I had lost about 15 birds when I decided to have the vet do a post mortem on two of them.

"I told the vet about the hot-air balloons and jets flying low over the farm and straight away he said that was the cause. As soon as the gas is released to raise the balloon they go absolutely crazy. It is absolute chaos, when they go into anything and that causes the egg to explode inside them.

"The fragments of the egg and its contents then infect them and then they die from it - it's a horrible way to go."