Double Yolked Eggs.

[Oor Wullie]

On Saturday the Mrs bought half-a-dozen eggs from the butchers. the last was cracked open this morning. All six were double yolked. Now I know there is nothing unusual about a double yolk, but getting six in one box, is that unusual. What's the most you have had in one go?

[cheyenne]

yes i had the same from a greengrocers, they were freerange eggs.but no luck since.its a bit like winning a tenner on the lottery,it doesent happen very often but when it does youve it the jackpot?

[Oor Wullie]

Thank you vinny

[WoWo]

You can actually buy Double Yoke eggs in a box of six, but as you said she got the from a butchers I guess this was all just luck.

[rekstout]

You can get them deliberately boxed as six double-yolk eggs. I remember in Hong Kong the supermarkets sold eggs loose and there were spotlights over the eggs where you could hold each one up to see if it was double-yolked (or fertilised?) and little old adies would spend hours sifting through the eggs to ensure they got the ones they wanted.

[Bob A Job]

Well. 'double yolkers' are, when you think about it unfertilised twins. twins in humans and chickens are a genetic trait. I.E. if twins run in you family your likley to have them yourself. As chickens are mostly battery farmed and all female, they are bred often from one male, if the male has the genetic trait it is passed on to all the second generation hens and the whole farm is likley to produce double yolks. (hugely simplified explanation)

[cheyenne]

do you think they would mind if i tried that in sainsburys??rekstout.

[WoWo]

When I worked in a super market we used to have eggs deliverd (obviously) pretty much every day we didn't get our box of double yoke eggs, the driver told us that because the eggs were much larger than normal that the chickens often died after laying them.

[Oor Wullie]

I have to admit WoWo the eggs did look larger than normal.

[Zira]

I think 6 doubles is indeed unusual. Most I have ever gotten is 2 in a dozen :)

[bernardo]

My grandmother once got five doubles in a box of six.

[Jamie Lewis]

Never had more than 3 in a half dozen. Did get a chick in one once when staying in France. You should have seen my sister's face when I cracked it open and there was a little (not quite fully formed) chick boiled alive in it - hilarious. She's never eaten eggs since.

[New Forester]

They must have been selected as double-yolkers, or at least been sold as super-size eggs. I put a double-yolker under a hen once and got the chicks to pipping stage, but sadly both died before hatching fully. Until a day or so before laying, the hen's eggs are just a cluster of yolks of varying sizes. Each day one yolk sets off down the oviduct and is coated in turn with white, membrane, shell, colour, spots and wax. If two float off together down the oviduct, they can both get incorporated into one egg. Not sure if there's much genetic effect -- many hens produce the odd one, especially if they lay good big eggs anyway.

[docker zach]

We live in Launceston, Tasmania (Aust)and have recently bought a pack of 18 eggs from our local supermarket. We have cracked open 12 of these and every one is a double yolker. We cannot believe it. Can you explain this or should we be applying to the Guiness Book?

[bjh3]

I came across this site because I am wondering if double-yolk eggs produce twin chicks if left to mature. I'm told that "mother's" ovulation time is all out of whack after moulting and that is the reason for double yolks...though I've not confirmed this. A friend of mine has learned that the most yolks in one egg is NINE! wow And this friend read from a man who raises chickens that he has never seen twin chicks hatch from one egg, saying that they would be too big for one shell to hatch them. Still, this is interesting to me.

[New Forester]

Bjh3 -  I have put a double yolker under a hen, and got the twins to the point of one of them hatching.  Sadly they did not survive any further, but this can happen with singletons too.  So I reckon it must be possible.