Jennifer Garner has become the proud owner of some chickens.

Jennifer Garner's Instagram (c) post

Jennifer Garner's Instagram (c) post

The 45-year-old actress - who has Violet, 11, Seraphina, eight, and Samuel, five, with her estranged husband Ben Affleck - has taken to Instagram to show off one of the new pets, which she has named Regina George after the character played by Rachel McAdams in 'Mean Girls'.

Dubbing herself a "chicken lady", Jennifer wrote alongside a picture of herself walking Regina: "If there isn't a Chicken Lady Day , there really should be. Man, my life gets more exciting all the time.

"-- --

"Meet one of our ladies, Regina George. Regina loves long walks, dehydrated bugs, and kale. Regina hates....carbs.

"#shesanicechickenbutaMeanGirl

"#MeanGirlsthemovie

"#ithinkshehasaburnbook

"#cluckcluck (sic)"

The '13 Going On 30' actress will no doubt be trying to win her brood over with her impressive new pets, after Ben, also 45, recently admitted his eldest daughter is "embarrassed" to be seen with him, despite him playing Batman.

He said: "[For] my oldest daughter, I'm already embarrassing, you know what I mean?

"I'm like, 'How can I be embarrassing? I'm Batman. That embarrasses you?' She's like, 'Dad, pick me up down the street."

And whilst Ben wants to impress his kids with his movie roles, Jennifer actively has to "shake off" her tough roles, so as not to bring the baggage of her character back home with her.

She said: "Anytime that you're playing someone who is going through something, you have to just figure it out, and you actually - believe it or not - don't use your own life as much as you might think. It really is its own bear to get through.

"You just get into that place. That's your job, and then you shake it off, because you have to go home and raise your kids. It's just like any other time I do a scene with an emotional place."