Chicken hitches lift 25 miles on spare wheel of Land Rover

A chicken has been reunited with its owner after apparently hitching a lift for about 25 miles (40km) on the spare wheel on the back of a Land Rover.

Dave Jacobs found the chicken wandering around Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire on Saturday morning.

After a social media appeal, a farmer in Kintore came forward to identify and claim his missing bird. It is thought it had hopped on to the back of a friend’s Land Rover and stayed there for the whole journey.

Mr Jacobs said it had been an unusual situation and added that the farmer also had a second bird missing. It is thought it may also have hitched a lift and could be loose in the local area.

Mr Jacobs, 58, told BBC Scotland News he had gone down to the sea at Stonehaven on Saturday morning.

“There was a chicken on the road, which I thought was a bit random,” he said.

“I tried to catch it for a while, then left it to wander.”

He came back later, and managed to catch the chicken with the help of others.

Mr Jacobs said a house nearby had chickens, so they initially assumed it might be from there, and put it in the coop.

He then posted on social media which led to the farmer from Kintore contacting him.

Meanwhile, the couple who lived where Mr Jacobs left the chicken confirmed it was not theirs.

The farmer travelled to Stonehaven on Sunday and told Mr Jacobs a friend had driven there from the farm early on Saturday.

“He thinks it hitched a lift and then jumped off,” Mr Jacobs said, explaining that sitting on wheels was something the chickens often did on the farm.

“He took it back to Kintore,” he said.

“He was missing two chickens, so the other one could be between Kintore and Stonehaven.”