Panic on the Farm

Stranger things are known to happen in the animal world. But the theory that a loud hot air balloon could have impaired the fertility of a brood of hens proved too much for a court in Germany on Friday. It threw out the complaint by a German farmer against a Dutch balloon pilot.

The farmer was seeking 26,000 euros ($35,000) in damages from the pilot's insurance company.

The incident occurred in September 2004, when the balloon pilot swooped low and passed over the farmer's land in the village of Nordhorn in the German state of Lower Saxony.

In an attempt to regain altitude, the pilot fired up his propane gas burner with a loud hiss causing panic among the farm's 20,000 free-range hens.

According to the farmer, some of the startled, squawking birds sprang over a two-meter fence while others tried to flee into coops. The hens, the farmer said, had been scared badly. Their post-traumatic stress syndrome meant that a week and a half later, they were laying fewer eggs. Egg production dropped by almost 60 percent, the farmer said.

The unusual theory was, however, refuted by a professor at a nearby veterinary college. Asked to testify by the court, the expert said that decreased egg production among hens was possible for up to two days after a major shock -- but not ten days after as the farmer had claimed.