The Waitrose egg that hatched

So he asked his mother to buy eggs from the same store chain then popped them in an incubator and waited.

Three weeks later, the schoolboy heard a tap-tap-tapping from inside one of the shells.

The following day, Celia the chicken emerged.

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"I was really surprised," Miles, nine. "When I first heard the chirping I didn't think it was going to survive, but now it's running about.

"It's very cute and a lovely brown colour and I have decided to call it Celia, after my sister though I am not sure yet if it is a cockerel or a hen.

"I've always loved chickens. They follow you around and they are always up to something."

His mother Sarah, 45, bought the £1.55 carton of rare breed Cotswold Legbar eggs at the Waitrose store in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, near the family's farm in Great Ashfield.

She said: "I didn't think it would work but I thought free range eggs would give us our best chance. We also put some quail eggs in the incubator but they didn't work."

The batch came from the traditional free range egg producer Clarence Court of Liskeard, Cornwall.

The firm also supplied the organic Braddock Whites duck eggs hatched in March by ten-year- old Jessica Sansom in Watermouth, Devon.

Miles was inspired after reading about Jessica in the Daily Mail. His own success proves more than one male has infiltrated the flocks.

A Clarence Court spokesman said: "The vast majority of eggs we supply are not fertilised because we deliberately do not keep cockerels with hens.

"But we keep our birds under a fairly natural system in small flocks and inevitably there will be some instances when a cockerel gets in.

"This rare breed is more difficult to sex than modern hybrids so mistakes can occur and cockerels get missed."

He added: "Fertilised eggs are completely harmless to eat and consumers would not notice if they had one."

A Waitrose spokesman added: "These eggs are from free range hens, and, although an extremely rare occurrence, this hen must have come in contact with a cockerel at some point."

In Miles's eyes, it was a lucky mistake. He will give Celia a good home with his family's 40 other chickens when she grows up. She will always stand out from the flock, however.

"I am not squeamish - I do eat chickens," he said. "But I wouldn't eat my own chicken, especially this one."