Our 8 laying hens are giving us around 5 eggs a day and, for the most part, they are what would be classified as Large Eggs if you bought them at the A&P. Every few days we get an Extra Large sized egg among the Larges. Sometimes the XLs have two yolks inside, which is always a nice surprise.
Nothing, however, could have prepared us, for the arrival of Super Egg.
You can see it here, second from the right, trying to look casual amongst its unfreakish brethren. “Nothing to see here. Just a dozen perfectly normal size eggs.”
We don’t know which of the hens laid this mammoth specimen; Patrick just found it in the laying box with the others. I was all-out-of-proportion excited about cracking it. I don’t know what I thought I’d find inside its super-thick, weirdly-shaped shell. Maybe a tiny toy, like the ones that used to come in Cracker Jack’s. Or a Tiffany cut diamond. At the very least it might contain three yolks, maybe even four.
I was only the tiniest bit disappointed when I cracked the shell and found only two yolks. The anticipation alone made my morning.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Are any of the chickens limping? Poor girl. She may never produce another egg!
Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Just how big an egg can a normal hen lay without damaging herself?!? And why does it happen?
Oh MAN!! makes me hurt just thinking about it!?!
did it have more white? bet it was good!
Yikes! Makes me glad I’m not a laying hen. You would have heard some really, really loud RAWKs.
Y’see kids, two eggs slide down the oviduct at the same time and then the “cover-it-with-shell” mechanism just covers them both together. It stretches the old girl, but usually no damage is done. There’s a YouTube video of a lady who incubated a “twin” egg and actually helped hatch out both chicks. But this is NOT recommended. Usually only one chick survives if the egg is incubated. Personally, I think it’s better to have a really awesome omelet out of the deal.
i hope it was good
for the hen
and for u too
that’s one mighty big eggy
yum.
We get one of those every so often from the chicken who already lays jumbo size eggs.. Compared to one of our other hens who lays small eggs its pretty humorous to see them side by side.
Wow! That’s a pretty big egg, but the one next to it is big too. Poor Chicken!
We’ve been getting one of those giants every week or so. I can’t figure out which hen is gifting it to us either. Thanks for confessing disappointment at finding “only” two yolks…..I had the same feeling and then felt bad!