LONDON -- Chicken is still as scarce as hen's teeth at KFC's British outlets.

KFC says about 470 of the fried chicken chain's 900 U.K. restaurants remained closed Tuesday because of a chicken shortage. The company says the disruption started last week, when it changed its delivery provider to DHL.

Open branches are operating on shortened hours or with limited menus.

The fried chicken chain first apologized for the problems on Saturday. It said it expects problems to continue throughout the week.

The company declined to offer details about what it is doing to address the inadequate chicken supplies.

KFC said: "We anticipate the number of closures will reduce today and over the coming days as our teams work flat-out all hours to clear the backlog."