THIRTEEN quail eggs bought from the shelves at Tesco have amazingly hatched into little chicks.

Clive and Julie Preston, who run Fakenham Farm at St Helens on the Isle of Wight say the additions to their brood were a complete surprise.

Their son Tony bought two clutches of quail eggs from the nearby Ryde superstore. He popped them in the farm incubator and after a couple of weeks they began to hatch one by one.

"We have heard of this sort of thing happening before but were rather surprised when they actually began to hatch," Julie said.

NFU county secretary Matthew Legge said it was unusual but not impossible or supermarket-bought eggs to hatch under the right conditions.