text: It wouldn’t make much of a breakfast, but this tiny egg could give a schoolgirl and her pet hens a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Shannon Hayes, 12, believes one of them has laid the smallest chicken egg in the world. After doing some research on the internet, she thinks its length of 1.8cm – smaller than a 5p coin – shaves two millimetres off the previous title-holder. Shannon said: ‘I’m confident it’s the smallest. It is very tiny and you wouldn’t want it for breakfast.’ Shannon Hayes, centre, believes her pet hen, right, has laid the world's smallest ever egg, left . The tiny egg, left,  is only a small fraction of the normal size of the traditional breakfast favourite, right . The tiny egg, which was laid in Capel Iwan, Carmarthenshire, is smaller than a five pence piece, pictured . She keeps seven hens at her family home in Capel Iwan, Carmarthenshire, but she is not sure which laid the tiny egg. Shannon spotted it among the ordinary-sized eggs in her hen coop. Fearful of it being crushed, she immediately took it into the house to be measured. In 2011, an American farmer claimed his hen had laid the world’s smallest chicken egg, measuring 2.1cm long. That was beaten in 2014 by an egg one millimetre smaller laid in Somerset by a hen called Muffin. Meanwhile, Shannon is storing her potential world record-breaker it in the fridge for safe-keeping. Shannon believes that her egg, which measures just 1.8cm in length is 3mm smaller than the current record .
target: Shannon Hayes spotted the tiny egg at her home in Carmarthenshire .
  She rescued it fearing it was going to be crushed by the regular eggs .
  The 12-year-old measured the egg and discovered it was just 1.9cm long .
  It is believed the previous record holder was a 2.1cm egg laid in Somerset .