I took six eggs out of the fridge for a recipe that required six egg yolks.

I was slightly surprised that the first egg was double-yolked. I have heard of this and believe it's not uncommon although I don't recall seeing one before.

I called my son over to look and in front of him, cracked the second egg. It also had two yolks. So did the third and the fourth!

They were somewhat larger than normal eggs from a fresh local produce stall but I still think this is pretty unusual. Just wondered if anyone else has had similar experiences.

By the way I am not yolking about this!

Maybe a double barrelled rooster?

In any case, one for the family albumen.

I often get entire batches of double yolked eggs, particularly when getting them from farm stalls. I do try to get the largest eggs I can find so perhaps that's a factor.

You can stipulate double yolkers when you buy eggs in one shop here,I stopped buying them,the novelty wore off, rather have one good big yolk than two sub standard ones.
Sounds like you bough half a dozen double yolkers is all.
:)

In any case, one for the family albumen. You're white about that, but unfortunately I only thought of photographing them when the cake was in the oven - a bit late!

Just last week actually, 3 out of the 6 were doubles.

yep it happened to me too, 4 out of 6.. i wondered it was anything to do with the creatures being fed steriods...

to wit.. have you seen the effing size of some chicken breasts in the supermarkets they look like they've come from a pterodactyl !

When I go shopping I tend not to look at chicken breasts, I find the human ones more interesting.

Did this happen on a Friday ? If so you should have posted it on "Friday Yokes".

Hat, coat, spectacles, zimmer frame, etc....

I notice on my shopping trips when visiting the UK that some supermarkets now sell eggs named according the the breed of hen. What I want to know is, how long will it be before you can buy eggs according to the name of the chicken. Me, I'm for Henrietta - I always did like that name for a chicken.

Sorry, we had Henrietta for supper last evening.

Henry ate a what ???

That was not a very good yoke.

It usually happens to young chickens when they start laying so if the chicken farm has got new batch of layers into the flock there will be a high proportion of double-yolkers for a while until they get their rhythms sorted out.

think about it this way..this kind of thing tends to happen with new birds just starting on laying, they've not got their daily routine sorted out yet
If you work on the basis that birds of a similar age are caged together, then its no surprise that these eggs would be together

incidentally my son pointed out to me a report in "The Beano" last week thatthe world record was nine yolks in one egg. Can't help feeling for the poor hen - must have been both prolapsed and ruptured after passing something like that

You're more likely to get doubles if you shell out more when you buy them.


A new low, even for me.

We've kept garden chickens for a few years and we bought a few more "point of lay" ones earlier this year. They start laying at about 18 to 20 weeks of age, no cockerel required for eating eggs. I agree that the double yolked ones are from newly laying birds. They also might start by laying very small eggs, or eggs with a membrane but no shell (!) until they sort themselves out. We've had all sorts from this new lot.

They make really eggshellent pets as they give something back in kind. Just don't let them get in the flower beds though.....or they will no longer be flower beds! :eek:

Chickens are cooped up in such conditions of close contact that they cannot move other than to peck at the almost force fed hormone enhanced food to which they are subjected and then lay eggs from the other end on a daily basis. Their nether regions, from which come the eggs, are so jammed together with the conveyor belt passing under their cloacae on a 24/7 basis that any abnormalities in genetic ovarian production caused by imbalances produced by the modified feedstuffs are likely to be confined to one batch of chickens at a time, although it has to be said that this batch could number in the thousands.
The conveyor belt takes the eggs through the cleaning and inspection process and so into the cartons for packing and distribution. Evidence of double yoked eggs is indicative of the extreme cruelty to which battery hens are subjected while they engage in the egg laying process and before they themselves are conveyed by their feet, which protrude through metal grids which now turn upside down automatically, to shunt the hens to the slaughter bays and the chicken nugget niblets so beloved of so many of suburbia's sweet innocents.

CC, I think your information is a little out of date. The EU regulations have changed at 1st January 2012 and "battery" hen farming is no longer allowed.

At least in UK this has been enforced. Some farmers have given up due to the high cost of setting up the new accommodation sheds.

Meanwhile, in France: French farmers ignore battery hen ban - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8986255/French-farmers-ignore-battery-hen-ban.html#)

What I want to know is, how long will it be before you can buy eggs according to the name of the chicken.

It has already happened. In a local branch of one of the large supermarket chains (The four-letter name begins and ends with an "A", with an "S" and a "D" in the middle) they had some free-range eggs from an outfit who (rightly so) promoted 'happy' hens, each of whom supposedly had a name, and on the boxes was the caption along the lines of 'These eggs were laid by a happy hen called Gerty! (or somesuch silly name.)

Battery hen farming no longer allowed in Britain for the last five months?
Whose providing counseling for the survivors?

Whose, Mr Cheetah?

Tsk, tsk....:}

Watch out, the grammar eggsaminers have jumped on their perches....

their favourite plaice...

SRT √
With suitable humility.

What everybody above says, more or less. Dad was a poultry farmer, late forties and through the fifties, all free range and eggs had to go to the Ministry of Food! Now, here in Oz,we are a few paddocks away from a 350,000 chook farm and the 'overweight' eggs are sold in the farm shop, as they can't go to the major stores, who only want uniformity and no double yokes. No bull, for the very first time in my life I had a triple, yes triple yoker this week. The bad news is that when a hen lays an over sized egg it may have a prolapse and half it's entrails come out, maybe they can put them back today but in our farming days it meant chicken for dinner.

"maybe they can put them back today but in our farming days it meant chicken for dinner. "

removing the giblets must have been interesting