Why does this entire carton of eggs have 2 yolks each?

Why does this entire carton of eggs have 2 yolks each? - Top view of chicken eggs in rows in paper container placed on table for cooking

I got chills this morning making breakfast as I cracked open 6 eggs in a row, all having 2 yolks each.

12 yolks, 6 eggs

I've read this is caused by an anomaly that is considered normal in an egg here and there.

I guess the question is, is a whole crate of double-yolk eggs a "bad" thing or a "good" thing? I'm inclined to go with "good" because it seems there's a heck of a lot more protein and nutrients in a double-yoked egg. And yes, that omelette did end up tasting like a 12-egg omelette with half the whites discarded.

Yet, having no good evidence whatsoever I'm suspicious these hens were dosed with some fertility drug.

Thoughts?

Note: Yes all 12 eggs ended up having 2 yolks each.



Best Answer

Double yolking tends to happen more often in spring and with young or very old birds. As commercial egg producers do not tend to let their birds get old, unless you are getting farm eggs, they are likely young birds.

Automatic candles may be set up to separate these as suspect so they had to be re-run to verify they were not bad, which will result in them being grouped.

When I raised birds, it seemed like brown egg varieties have this occur more often than white eggs, but that is just my experience. Some people actually try to breed for this and it is more common in some birds. It also makes young birds a bit more profitable as the eggs are large than they would normally be for new layers. There are considerable downsides as well for the birds though. The eggs are not viable, almost always if incubated the egg will fail as if both are fertile, the egg cannot support twins, and one failing in the shell will lead to the demise of the other. Also, the eggs are larger, so a young bird is laying eggs larger than it is physically ready to lay, and for an old bird the eggs can become monstrous. This causes a much higher mortality rate in birds.

I have very seldom had double yolks in commercial eggs, but there seems to be something in the water this year. Just last week I had a dozen also that 10 of the 12 were double. Just my luck, I was trying to make angel food cake and did not want them. lol




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Why does this entire carton of eggs have 2 yolks each? - Broken egg in row with in carton box
Why does this entire carton of eggs have 2 yolks each? - Crop woman breaking quail egg into pan
Why does this entire carton of eggs have 2 yolks each? - Top view of yolk in broken eggshell among whole eggs in carton container



Quick Answer about "Why does this entire carton of eggs have 2 yolks each?"

But what causes the double yolk? A double yolk occurs in an egg when a chicken releases two yolks into the same shell. Double yolks are usually produced by young chickens. Since their reproductive systems have not fully matured, they periodically release two yolks instead of one.

Why does my whole carton of eggs have double yolks?

These eggs typically come from our younger hens who are still just learning how to lay eggs. Double-yolked eggs also tend to be very large. They are usually graded 'Super Jumbo. ' Eggs identified as Super Jumbo are too large for our packing machine to pack into cartons, so they are moved to the hand packing station.

What does finding 2 egg yolks mean?

A double yolk occurs when a hen's body releases more than one egg during her daily ovulation cycle. And, just like humans, it's possible for two \u2014 or more \u2014 eggs to make their way from the ovary and through the reproductive tract. The overall odds of a hen laying a double yolk are one in 1,000.

Are double yolk eggs safe?

The good news is that yes, they are safe to consume. If you ever spot an egg with twin yolks floating in it, never throw them away. However, they have a different white-yolk ratio than the egg with just one yolk! Also, a double-yolk egg means, double the protein, cholesterol and other such nutrients than a regular egg.

How rare is a whole carton of double yolk eggs?

\u201cYou get double yolks when a young hen's reproductive system is not fully developed. It's quite unlikely, less than 0.1 per cent. But if a group of hens is the same age, you are more likely to then get more double yolkers from that group of hens.\u201d



Entire Carton of Eggs - Double Yolked!




More answers regarding why does this entire carton of eggs have 2 yolks each?

Answer 2

Eggs are 'candled', visually inspected against a light source to check viability. It seems to be standard practice for double yolked eggs to be grouped together, though I can't find a source as to why that might be. I have heard of it several times anecdotally though.

Answer 3

If your eggs are from a commercial egg company like those common in the US, there are a couple of related factors that could have contributed to your all-double-yolks carton of eggs.1

First, commercial egg farms tend to raise hens in staggered flocks, with special growing conditions applied to have all the hens in a single flock reach peak productivity and "retirement" age at approximately the same time. This has some advantages of efficiency, but it also means that hens in a given flock will tend to be in double-yolk phases of their lifecycles at the same time.2 If the eggs of a single flock are processed together, it increases the odds that individual cartons of eggs will have multiple multi-yolk eggs during these phases.

This is not necessarily a drawback from the point of view of the egg packager. One side effect of double yolks is that the eggs are larger than normal.3 Luckily, there is a market for larger-than-normal eggs. This brings us to the second possible factor: you will tend to find more double-yolk eggs in cartons of extra-large and jumbo-size eggs. Anecdotally, I've found double-yolk eggs in almost every carton of jumbo eggs I've ever bought, and have had cartons with as many as eight-out-of-twelve eggs doubled. Your twelve-out-of-twelve is still impressive, though—and if they were regular-sized eggs, doubly so.


1 Some brands also actually specifically package and market cartons of double yolkers, but I assume you would have noticed that!
2 As mentioned in other answers and comments, hens who are not in the prime of their reproductive lifespan are more prone to ovulation "misfires" such as double-yolk eggs.
3 However, the individual yolks are usually smaller than the yolk from a regular egg. (Similarly, a human woman's abdomen gets bigger with a twin pregnancy than with a singleton pregnancy, even though twins tend to be a bit smaller at birth than the average singleton.)

Answer 4

I love double yolker and I find it is indeed more common at certain times of year. I have one brand that I use and it consistently has double yolks almost year round. Sometimes though I will go a couple months without a single, double, yolker, bummer. I generally end up with an entire carton of doubles when I find one in the batch. I know that there used to be a brand at one store that offered cartons of only double yolks. For some reason, they no longer carry them.

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