By themselves, double yolks are fairly rare – you might find them in 1 of every 1,000 eggs. These eggs typically come from our younger hens who are still learning how to lay eggs. As you might expect, double yolked egg shells tend to be pretty big. In fact, they are usually graded 'Super Jumbo.
If you're a superstitious person, getting an egg with a double yolk can signify good luck, an imminent new beginning, or that you or your female counterpart is going to be pregnant with twins. Or, if you subscribe to Norse mythology, it means someone in your family is going to die.
On that basis we can say that while chance of finding one double-yolk egg may be 1/1000, the chance of finding a second is considerably higher - more like 1/100.
It is a rare occurrence. When two chicks hatch from the same egg, the egg usually has two yolks. Usually, one embryo out competes the other and only one chick survives to hatch. Many time both embryos die before hatch.
Double-yolked eggs are perfectly safe to consume. In places like Hong Kong and India, hens are even bred to lay double-yolked eggs, since they are said to bring good fortune. But why do some eggs get an extra yolk and how does that affect your breakfast?
Even more rare is an egg with more than 2 yolks. Triple yolkers occur from time to time, and in fact, it's possible to get more yolks in an egg. The most yolks ever found in an egg was 11.
The British Egg Information Service estimates a double yolk to happen once in every 1,000 eggs, and a triple yolk to happen once in every in 25 million eggs.
In 17/20 (85%) cases of monochorionic diamniotic twins, two yolk sacs were seen. In 3/20 (15%) cases of monochorionic diamniotic twins, a single yolk sac was seen. In the one case of monochorionic diamniotic triplets, two yolk sacs were visualized. In one case of monoamniotic twins, a single yolk sac was observed.
Finding a double yolk in an egg means someone in the immediate family is pregnant. If she already knows she is pregnant, it means she will have twins. Chances of finding a double-yolked egg are about one in 1,000.
$14.50. All of our Double Yolker eggs come from conventional cage-free hens where they are free to roam around and explore, and always have access to perching, nesting and dust bathing areas.
The odds of finding one of the these scarce eggs is said to be 1,000 to one, so theoretically the odds on finding ten in a row is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 - or a quintillion - to one.
According to the British Egg Information Service, the odds of discovering a quadruple-yolker are one in 11 billion, according to a press release from Dakota Layers.
"They grade for size of the egg and for shell strength," Smith says. "They want uniformity." And, by definition, a double-yolker is not uniform. As a result, these jumbos — whether they foretell good luck or a scrambled future of misfortune — nowadays rarely make it to the grocery store.
A one-in-25-million chance
"I managed to find some data from the British Egg Information Service suggesting a double-yolk egg is about one in 1,000 and a triple-yolk egg is about one in 25 million," she said.
The issue can be hereditary, but it is most common in production pullets just coming into lay, and occasionally older layers coming to the end of their cycle. The younger pullets coming into lay suffer from hormone change and imbalance, which can cause the double yolk phenomenon.
If there are multiple eggs with double yolks in the same nest, they may represent fertility or new beginnings for those involved in creating a life together.
Because fraternal, or dizygotic, twins are 2 separate fertilized eggs, they usually develop 2 separate amniotic sacs, placentas, and supporting structures. Identical, or monozygotic, twins may or may not share the same amniotic sac, depending on how early the single fertilized egg divides into 2.
These fetuses share a single chorionic sac but two yolk sacs and two amniotic sacs. By this time a trophoblast has already formed yielding a single placenta. The layperson's term is that the twins are "identical".
The optimal cutoff value of the yolk sac-fetal pole distance was 1.80 mm, with 70% sensitivity and 67% specificity for female gender prediction. The distance also showed an independent association with gender prediction in the first trimester.
Among purebred brown egg layers, some of the largest eggs are produced by Jersey Giants and New Hampshires, both of which can be expected to lay large to extra-large eggs. Other layers of large brown eggs include the Delaware, Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, Rhode Island White, and Sussex.
Yolkless eggs are actually common enough that chicken keepers have a number of names for them—fairy egg, witch egg, rooster egg, oops eggs, dwarf egg, wind egg, and, most commonly, fart egg.
According to Hugh Merwin at Grub Street, double-yolk eggs occur naturally at a rate of roughly one in 1,000 eggs. While chickens that are more likely to produce double-yolk eggs are selectively bred elsewhere in the world, at Saunder's, the process is all about playing the numbers.
Or, if you want to take matters into your own hands, you can actually buy them. There's a Pennsylvania-based egg company called Sauder's that actually sells something called Double Yolk Eggs, which are double yolk eggs by the carton.
The chance of a young hen laying a double-yolked egg are roughly 1:30. So, three in a row would calculate the odds at one in 27,000.
According to the British Egg Information Service, the odds of discovering a quadruple-yolker are a staggering one in 11 billion, according to a news release from Dakota Layers.