Chick born without an egg in Sri Lanka

Published Apr 23 2012, 17:08 BST  |  By Emma Dibdin

A chick has been born without an egg on a farm in Sri Lanka.

The chick survived and is said to be in good health with no physical deformities, but the mother has died of internal wounds, Metro reports.

Normally, eggs are passed out of the hen and incubated before hatching, but in this case the egg was incubated inside the hen for 21 days and hatched.

The farmer alerted a local vet, who carried out an autopsy on the mother.

The vet said: "I had only heard about such aberrations, but I was able to see it for myself today.

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