Mass chicken-run on a German highway after lorry overturns

Farah Bahgat with DPA, local media2 hours ago2 hours ago

There was something fowl on a road in central Germany. Thousands of chickens were on the loose after a truck overturned on the autobahn.

Thousands of chickens were on the run after a lorry overturned on a highway, authorities in the central German city of Magdeburg said on Thursday.

Traffic was disrupted toward the nearby city of Braunschweig as chickens were roaming freely on and alongside the road.

It was not immediately clear what made the vehicle tip onto its side, spilling 15 tons of cargo.

The driver was unharmed, and veterinary authorities were called in to capture the animals.

The number of eggs produced by large-scale farms in Germany increased to 13.7 billion in 2024, according to the German Federal Office for Statistics (Destatis).

There were around 45.3 million egg-laying hens in 2024, with each hen laying an average of 302 eggs.

Fewer than a quarter of the chickens (23.6%) were free-range, with the majority (58%) being kept in barns and just 4.3% held in cages.