‘One in a billion’ spherical egg set for charity auction

A farmer who found a rare spherical egg has confirmed it will be sold at auction in two months’ time but she is unsure it will make anyone’s breakfast.

Ali Greene of Fenton Farm in Devon hit the headlines this week after finding a spherical hen’s egg – which some reports claim is a “one in a billion” occurrence.

Despite working at the farm for three years and handling around 30,000 eggs each week, the 57-year-old said she had never seen a shell as round as her most recent find.

“I’m forever going to be known now as the egg woman,” Ms Green, who lives in nearby Westleigh, told the PA news agency.

“When I’m dead people will Google ’round egg’ and they’re going to see my face – which is not something that I ever envisaged.”

The “very, very obviously round”, satsuma-sized egg will go to auction on March 18 with Bearnes Hampton Littlewood Auctioneers, with proceeds from the sale going to Devon Rape Crisis – a local charity where Ms Greene volunteers.

Ms Greene said it is being kept in salt to preserve it, but she expects her egg’s buyer is unlikely to eat it.

“Anybody who’s going to buy something like that is probably purely for the rarity of it – I find another one, I will smash it because it makes mine rarer,” Ms Greene said.

“You’d have it on a plinth, probably … but I have no idea – somebody might buy it and just stick it in an omelette, who knows?”

A similar egg, found by a shopper in a supermarket in Ayr, Scotland, was sold at auction for £200 last year.

It is likely the egg will instead be drained of its yolk so only the shell remains – a process known as blowing.

Ms Greene said she hopes it is bought by someone who is “passionate about the charity”.

“I’ll be there at the auction and hopefully (it will) go for more than a tenner,” she added.

“If that’s the case, I think I’ll buy it myself and give the charity a donation, and then just have it on a plinth for myself.”