A free-range Manx hen has laid an unusually large egg, which weighs in at a whopping 4.1 ounces [116 grams].

For reference, ’very large’ eggs are usually around 2.6 ounces [73.7 grams], and average sized eggs are about 1.75 ounces [49.6 grams].

The hen was one of six kept by Anouk de Vos, on the land of her house in Grenaby which she moved into six months ago.

Though Anouk did not know which one had laid the giant egg, she said that they are all average-sized red hens, which she and her partner Tim Cass had adopted just before Christmas last year.

She said the hens which they re-homed must have been quite old, and ’otherwise would have gone for the chop, as their laying days were apparently over’.

Anouk told us that they ’weren’t in a great state’ but after being given ’loads of love and attention’ are now generally laying an egg each, every day.

Asked about discovering it, Anouk said: ’It hadn’t been laid in the hen shed, I spotted it under a bush in the run and did a double take as it didn’t look real.

’I collected it, with three other eggs, in disbelief at how absurd it looked next to them.

’We did look around for a dead hen as we couldn’t believe it had survived laying it!’

The giant egg measures about 7cm [2 3/4 inches] tall, towering over the others in the batch.

She said that compared to even the largest eggs the hens had laid previously, this one was twice the size - and had two yolks.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest ever chicken egg was laid in 1956 in Vineland, New Jersey, and weighed more than 16 ounces [453 grams].

The largest egg ever laid in the UK is thought to be 7.05 ounces [199 grams], by a hen in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.