Overheard ... misheard ... and passed on ... but what comes back is nothing like how it began.

In an era of social media, never before has this simple tale of rumour-mongering been more important.

Starting with a comment a hen made while watching one of her feathers fall to the ground, a rumour begins in a henhouse on one side of the valley. She was overheard but misheard, yet her comment was passed on, which was overheard yet again by others and passed on through the bush telegraph to neighbouring henhouses, growing more exaggerated each time it was retold,...