What makes a double yoke egg

So I decided it was time to share what I know about double-yolk eggs, because I'm sure many of you have found one in the nesting box on occasion. Since commercially-sold eggs in the United States are sold by weight and also candled prior to packaging, any double-yolk eggs are discarded although in the UK they are not and you could go an entire lifetime eating store bought eggs and never encounter one.

However in Hong Kong and India, chickens are actually bred to lay double-yolked eggs that are highly sought after by customers. And if you start raising your own backyard flock, chances are you'll collect your share. Roughly one in every thousand eggs about. But in nearly five years of raising backyard chickens, and collecting hundreds upon hundreds of eggs, I've only seen a handful of double-yolkers.

However, I recently was contacted by New Age composer Alex Shapiro who told me that she just collected a whole carton of eggs that contained 10 double yolkers! What are the chances of that? A double-yolked egg occurs when two egg yolks are released into a hen's oviduct too close together and end up encased within the same shell. Double yolk eggs are not lash eggs , which are a sick chicken symptom and not really an egg at all.

You may find that double yolk eggs can mimic chickens laying soft eggs. In reality, the same amount of calcium goes into a double yolk egg shell as goes into a standard size shell.

So, you may find your double yolk egg shells a little softer than normal. Soft eggs are not always a sign of sickness, although a hen regularly laying soft shelled eggs should be monitored as this can be a sign of infectious bronchitis and oviduct issues such as salpingitis. But, most likely a soft egg is caused because of warm weather or because your hen needs more calcium in her diet.

For warm weather, just make sure your hens have adequate places to get out of the direct sunlight such as under trees, shrubs or decks and have plenty of accessible fresh water. You can clean them and then crush them up into small pieces and offer them free choice in a bowl or treat container.

You should always make sure to feed a well-balanced layer feed to your flock and you can add supplements such as herbs from your garden. Statistically speaking, double yolk eggs happen in about one in every thousand eggs. They are more common in hybrid and large breed chickens and can be hereditary. In some countries, hens that lay double yolk eggs are prized and bred to lay them. What is the chance of getting just the one double-yolk egg? Turns out to be about one in 1, And the chances of four double-yolk eggs in a row?

Under the right circumstances, the chances can be surprisingly high. In a hen, the name of the tube that runs from the ovary to the outside world is called the 'oviduct'. The first region the infundibulum is where the egg yolk lands, after leaving the ovary. It spends about 20 minutes here. In region two the magnum the yolk is coated with about half of its white albumen. This takes about three hours.

In region three the isthmus , more albumen is added—and also, the inner and outer shell membranes are deposited.

This process takes about one hour. The egg leaves through the fifth region, the cloaca. One of the hens lays larger eggs than the others; we just cracked open two for lunch today and they were both double yolks! The yolk is the food source for the growing chick, so no, there would be no twins.

Two yolks would start developing into two chicks, but generally one out-competes the other. One or both always die. One of my hens gave us a double yolked egg the other day and I felt blessed! Like she did it especially for me!

It was so heavy and quite a bit bigger than the regular eggs she usually lays. Where can I buy double yolk brown eggs? We used to go to the Hatchery where we used to live and it was fun and great to see all the chickens!!! I sure miss them!

Thank You Sue Simmons. I found a double yolk last week in store bought eggs. Never happened before. I buy s of eggs each year as a culinary arts teacher. So this demo was unique when this egg popped up! And as far as luck goes, my doctor told me today that my recent cancer scare is just that , a scare! We have 6 New Hampshire red hens who have just started to lay in the past 30 days. We have had several JUMBO eggs with double yolks and also many fragile shelled eggs and some that do not even have a shell.

What is the cause of the no shell on the egg? What can be done to prevent this. They already receive calcium pellets with their food. Thanks for reply lesa! I kinda figured that was the case. I will be patient! The double yolk eggs are HUGE! I know I will learn alot from everyone! Hi there… great website, very informative! We get our eggs from our local butcher small country town and you can almost guarantee they will all be double yolkers every time!

Beats me, must ask him who his supplier is, they must always have a supply of young chooks, lol. I was interested to see your comments on double yolk eggs. I have been buying eggs at our local boot sale yes boot sale we have a farmer who comes and sells his eggs there, I am caring for a young chicken, who was hatched by my four year old granddaughter the chicken in question eight weeks ago was found with a broken leg, So I rushed it to the vet and I now have a chicken with a splint and a bandaged on its leg.

Doing nicely I would like to add, To get it into bed at night I boil it an egg as a treat, and it really loves them,So it seemed a good idea to buy a tray of 20 off this man for boiling And almost every one so far has had a double yolk. I have never seen so many, They are big eggs though, I will ask next time what breed of chicken he keeps. So if that is true being good luck, I maybe will be in with a chance of winning the lottery, Interesting read thank you Pauline.

It would be interesting to know what kind of chicken is giving all the double yolks, if they keep doing it, the farmer better go buy a lottery ticket! I work for one of the Largest egg producers in Australia, we see around 30,00 double yolkers a day, every day. Never baught a lottery tickets though..

I was highly astonished the day I saw twin yolk in an egg. I was the one that prepared the boiled Egg for my Daughter.