Most kind, all of you. Alas, no joy so far - I couldn't make any sense of Fagey's suggestion so I just stuck a steel rod up there as it sounded good, think I might have killed the chicken with it though.
I'm pretty sure vqdave's suggestion would have worked, but I'm no longer married.
As for the dyson neilsie, I can't thank you enough for that one. Still no sign of the chicken, but I did manage to retrieve several golf balls,a guppy fish, 5 metres of hosepipe and a freemans catalogue. The satisfaction was almost overwhelming!!