Double yolk? Egg People

[radiantquest]

The White Egg, Brown Egg Debate. I thought who better to answer this question than all you egg eating people.

Husband bought from the store a whole carton of double yolk eggs. How do they know that there is two yolks in there? Do they XRay or something?

How is two yolks even possible?

There are two yolks in every egg. We have been eating them. I am not thrilled about it, I am not fond of the 1 standard yolk, but there have been extra yolks in every egg.

 

[CNOS128]

I think you can probably hold them up to a strong light and see the yolks.

But that would freak me out, and I wouldn''t be able to eat them.

 

[*Danielle*]

Yeah, they have a special light that shines behind and outlines what is inside. It just seems like twice the cholesterol...

 

[iheartscience]

Twin murderer!

It''s so bizarre that there is such a thing as a whole carton of double yoke eggs!

 

[radiantquest]

OK, so that answers part of the question. What is going on inside that chicken for a double yolk egg? Is this something that happens often? I don''t know if he paid more or less for them.

I don''t like them.

 

[Haven]

My grandmother always said that cracking a double yolk egg brings good luck!

I''m not sure if that stands when you actually know it has a double yolk when you buy it, though . . .

 

[iheartscience]

Found this by Googling...you got me intrigued! I thought it meant twins and I guess I was sort of right? I'll post a link below.

"What Causes Double Yolk Eggs?

When an egg starts its journey inside the hen, the first thing formed is the ovum in the hen's ovary. This grows and the colour changes from pale grey to the yellow we know as the yolk colour.

Once it reaches full size, the yolk sac breaks away (ovulation) and begins a journey down the oviduct where the egg white (albumen) and the shell form around it. The process from ovulation to egg laying takes around 24-26 hours.

Normally, the next ovulation is triggered by the hen laying the egg but occasionally things go wrong and two yolks are released at the same time to travel down the oviduct together, being surrounded by one shell and giving us the double yolker.

Twin Chicks in One Shell?

If the ovums are fertile the double yolked egg will contain two viable chick embryos but there will not be enough space for them to develop to hatching. Unfortunately twins from the same egg are not really possible.

Which Hens Lay Double Yolkers?

Most often double yolk eggs are laid by young hens of productive egg laying breeds. If you really like double yolked eggs then the highly productive breeds are more likely to reward you when young.

As they become more mature hens and their system settles down to correct production then the double yolks become less frequent to non-existent."

Via http://www.poultry.allotment.org.uk.

 

[MagsyMay]

Very interesting! I''d never heard of such a thing before this!

 

[Fly Girl]

I frequently get double yolks in the jumbo sized eggs.

 

[Elmorton]

We just got carton of cage-free where nearly every egg was a double. It totally freaked me out...I kept on thinking there was no way on earth that those poor hens weren't being shot up with some nasty cocktail of chemicals to get them to do that. Plus, it was giving me headaches to follow a recipe. Do you subtract an egg from the count?

I mean, I hate to ask this, but do they put the hens on fertility drugs?? Or do some hens just genetically consistently lay twins?**

The next week, I bought eggs at the farmer's market instead of the store, and no more double yolks, so that solved my problem.

**Okay, I see that question was answered...but after watching a special on pig production, I kindof wonder what "special productive breed" means.