Litts strike it clucky

It was early Wednesday morning last week when the Litt family realised one of their five chickens had produced an unusually heavy egg.

Daughter Emily found it in the backyard chicken coup before racing inside where the family weighed it on a set of scales.

The egg, with a double-yolk and single shell, weighed in at 112 grams.

Margaret River Free Range Eggs owner Jan Harwood said the egg was substantially bigger than average, but it would not eclipse any records.

"Anything over 70 grams is considered a mega egg," she said.

Ms Harwood said mega eggs are actually quite common, but are rarely seen at local supermarkets because the cells in egg cartons are too small to hold them.

"People are generally shocked because they don't usually see them at their local shop," she said.

�We have to tell them it's normal and that we're not feeding them nuclear waste.

"It's probably a classic sign that consumers are getting further away from traditional farmer's markets."

Kelvin Litt said the chickens, which the family had owned since midway through last year, were producing larger and larger eggs all the time.

Asked what the secret is, he said the chickens pretty much eat anything.

"Chicken pellets, lettuce, pasta, rice and even meat, they smash through anything," he said.