AN unusual family pet has had an operation to become a ‘bionic’ chicken.

Sue Murphy welcomed a brood of ex-battery hens to her Plumley home earlier in the year.

One of the chickens called Amelia proved to be particularly feisty and disaster struck when she was diagnosed with a fractured femur.

Instead of a cast, a metal rod was placed inside the bone and linked with tiny clamps to some threaded pins.

The high-tech operation took place at the Avian Veterinary Services at the Gauntlet Birds of Prey Centre in Manchester Road.

It meant Amelia could move her joints freely during the healing process and within half an hour she was walking again.

“Amelia is already up to her old tricks,” said Sue.

“Trying to leg it out of the run and perching on the house roof.

“She’s such a cheeky character and fingers crossed she doesn’t get into any more trouble with her antics.”

Richard Jones, veterinary surgeon and director of Avian Veterinary Services, added: “I have no doubt Amelia’s story will raise more than a few eyebrows.

“Indeed despite performing countless orthopaedic ops on falconry birds and parrots over the past 15 years, I never seriously contemplated the same on poultry.

“These particular birds are no longer viewed as production animals and have become valued family pets.

“They have the added bonus of producing an egg as rent.”

Britain’s ‘last battery hen’ was given a new home on December 29 marking the end of an era for commercial laying hens.

Liberty is enjoying her retirement in Devon with 60 other ex-battery hens following an EU directive to provide chickens with larger cages to move around.