Postie’s egg-celent note

Leanne Preston with her chicken Windmill and her Royal Mail note. (Image: Archant)

Leanne Preston, of Venus Street, Congresbury, received the unusual note from postman Alex Beck after he saw the bird fleeing from her garden.

Leanne Preston with her chicken Windmill and her Royal Mail note. (Image: Archant)

The note read: “Saw your chicken escape through the hedge to the side of the building and go into 4B’s garden at 13.15.”

Mr Beck had also filled in the items box with ‘1 chicken’ and ticked ‘could not be delivered because it’s too large.’

The note was posted online and was soon shared around the world.

The chicken, named Windmill, had been rehomed with Mrs Preston and her husband Mark, their two children Maddie, aged 10 and Amelie, aged seven, through the British Hen Welfare Trust.

Mrs Preston said: “I’m really grateful that he had such a sense of humour and a community spirit.

“It’s so easy to see things like that and think ‘it’s not my problem’ or ‘somebody else will do it’, and I’m just really appreciative that he took that time.

“It made me smile, so I wanted to tell the British Hen Welfare Trust what their chickens had been getting up to.

“I posted it on their Facebook and it’s just snowballed. I have had people contacting me from America, Australia, Canada – and the postman has been featured on Lads Bible and Yahoo.

“It’s bizarre. I’m a student nurse and when I went to university everyone was talking about it and even my lecturer had seen it.”

Postman Alex Beck, aged 23, said: “I saw the chicken go through the hedge and chased it to the back of the house and it went through a small hole into the other garden.

“I didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary. I thought it was something anyone would have done.”