Double Yolk Eggs🍳– The Experts Crack Open The Truth.

CONGR-HATCH-ULATIONS! IT’S TWINS!

Feeling Clucky?

Even if you fall out of bed in a grump, cracking open an unexpected double yolker at breakfast is enough to make you feel sunny side up all day long.

It doesn’t really matter if you’re superstitious or not. Everyone smiles smugly when they come across these rare gems, because that’s eggs-actly what they are – they’re rare!

If you’re hoping to grow your human flock, double yolkers are thought to be a sign of twins on the way! Off to the shops for you then!

Double yolk eggs are also thought to be a sign of prosperity and good luck, so even if you’re not ready for a baby, you’ll be open to the idea of some good fortune, surely?

If you’re more scientifically minded than spiritual or superstitious, double yolkers are a rare little treat, so you can still enjoy a particularly yolky portion of egg🥚 and soldiers for brekky. Nice.

Just like ladies, hens can ovulate more than one egg at a time and this birdy blooper results in two yolks being sealed in the same shell.

Double yolks are not supposed to happen, but this is life, and so they do!

A Dozen Double Yolk Questions Answered

1. What Are the Odds of Finding a Double Yolk Egg?

The odds of finding a double yolk egg are one in 1,000.👌🏼 Now and then a hen's body releases two eggs during her daily ovulation cycle. Just like us humans, two (or more) eggs can make their way through the reproductive tract in time to become a double yolker. 

2. What Are the Odds of finding a Triple Yolk Egg?

This can - and does – happen. Wowzer that must hurt!😱 You have a one-in-25-million chance of cracking open triplets.

3. How Many Yolks Can One Egg Have?

There is no real limit to how wrong nature can go. Reports of 3 or 4 yolks per egg are heard of, but it doesn’t stop there. The record-breaking count was nine. Can you imagine!

“The highest number of yolks found in a hen egg is nine, reported by Diane Hainsworth of Hainsworth Poultry Farms, Mount Morris, New York, USA in July 1971.”(Guinness Book of Records) 

4. How Are Double Yolk Eggs Formed?

Women release one egg a month, and that’s enough, thanks. Hens, however, release one egg every 24-26 hours. Thanks for making our efforts look feeble, hens.  

With a production line like that on the go, it’s no wonder the factory malfunctions from time to time.

A healthy hen can release a new yolk just 30 minutes after laying an egg. So much for a well-earned rest. It’s not uncommon for yolks to get released too close together, so they travel through the fallopian tube together and are united into the same egg whites, and then, the same eggshell.

5. Can Double Yolk Eggs Hatch Twin Chicks?

Double yolk eggs can hatch into twin chicks - which is insanely sweet - but they rarely do.

Even when double yolk eggs are fertilized they rarely yield chicks, even when fertilized, and when they do it’s more common that only one survives. Ultimately, the two embryos are battling for nutrients, and the strongest wins the battle. 

6. Can I Eat a Double Yolk Egg?

Of course, you can eat a double yolker. Some people prefer them for their higher yolk-to-white ratio. They taste a bit yolkier, because they are yolkier, but there is nothing wrong with eating that quirky egg. 

7. Are Double Yolk Eggs Healthier Than Normal Eggs?

There’s very little nutritional difference between single yolker and double yolkers.

Yes, most of the egg’s nutrients are in the yolk, but these yolks tend to be smaller, so you don’t quite get twice the hit. Double yolk eggs do have more vitamin A and choline, which is great, but more saturated fat, which is not so great. 

8. Can I Cook with Double Yolk Eggs?

Double troubles can still be boiled and bubbled. The not-the-norm yolk to egg ratio can throw the quality of certain recipes. This isn’t going to spoil your meal any more than using a large rather than a medium egg would, but if you’re a perfectionist baker, maybe save the double yolker for another purpose. 

9. Which Chickens Lay Double Yolk Eggs?

Pullets and older hens are more likely to deal you a double yolk egg than a poultry-popper who is in her prime.

Double yolk eggs are a whoopsie. They’re most common in hens who are finding their flow with laying. Pullets who are new to laying are more likely to drop a double, as are older hens that are coming up to retirement age. When hens are settling back into laying after winter or molt, they might lay one or two double yolk eggs before regaining their 24-hour rhythm.

Chicken breeds with high egg yields are more likely to lay double yolkers than less generous chicken breeds. Why? It’s just down to ratios. They lay more, they blooper more. 

10. How To Tell if an Egg Has Two Yolks

Double yolk eggs tend to look larger and longer than the hen’s single yolk eggs. You can probably spot your own hen’s double yolks easier than you will those of store-bought eggs, as you’ll know what Norma’s norms look like.

You can candle eggs to see the yolks before cracking them. It’s an old-school technique, and special light bars (or mobile phone torches) are used now rather than candles.

11. Are Double Yolk Eggs Lucky?

Eggs are pretty well known to be symbolic of new life…Easter and all that. Most cultures see a double yolk egg as a sign of fertility. If you crack it open or eat it, you have a good chance of falling pregnant…or maybe you already are!

In the Wiccan belief system, a double yolk egg is a more general symbol of good luck. Maybe that promotion?

Norsemen…well they’re all doom and gloom on the double yolker. They believed that double-yolk eggs were a sign that death had its evil eye on a family member. They must have full-on freaked out if they ever found a triple!

12. Can I Buy Double Yolk Eggs?

Yes, you can buy double yolk eggs. Double yolk eggs were considered cast-off produce for a long time, but cluckily, people are seeing past that odd urge for perfection in food production and embracing the weird and wonderful like wonky veg and double yolks. Yeay to progress! 😊

You can now buy eggs that have been screened (a techy version of candled) and are known to be double yolkers. There’s egg-stra work involved in packing these egg boxes, so as you might expect, double trouble means double dollar.

“I cracked open two eggs for breakfast this morning. One had two yolks - amazing, and the other had a little chunk of steak in it. The double yolker tasted really great! The other one? It was meaty yolker”

More yolks please! Click here for chicken funnies! 

Some chicken breeds naturally lay more eggs and so more double yolkers. How to find the right egg-popping poultry for your yard though?

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