You may recall our recent tiny eggs, but we haven’t had a really large egg in quite a while, so this was exciting for the little ones. Whenever we get a gigantic egg, we always expect a double-yolker. Or even a triple.
We were right!
WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?
I found this explanation on The Poultry Pages:
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.
Have more questions about this? Read more here.
We compared this super-size egg with our normal eggs by having a weigh-in. Our eggs range in size, but our normal large-size eggs weigh around 2.5 ounces.
This one, however, weighed a whopping 3.7 ounces! (Poor hen, whichever one she was.)
This is the first time we’ve weighed any of our eggs, so this big one holds the weight record for our humble homestead.
We’re curious, though . . . if you have chickens, what’s the heaviest egg your hens have laid?
Don’t forget to enter my “Think Spring” Lilla Rose Giveaway here!