Yesterday's offerings were 2 normal sized eggs and these two! The paler one on the left is obviously a double yolker. We have one of these about every 10 days. They are not from the same chicken because we once had two on the same day. On the right is the titchiest little egg - more like a quail's than a chicken's egg. When we get around to eating them it will be interesting to see if it has a yolk or is just a 'wind egg'. I also find it interesting that it has much more colour than our usual eggs and has even darker freckles. I assume this means that there is a finite amount of colour available per egg and it gets used up - stretched more thinly for a paler, larger than usual egg and spread a bit thicker for a smaller egg.Edit - we had the eggs this morning (18/06/09). Sure enough, the big one (100g) was a double yolker and the tiny one (under 30g) was 'all white' - a wind egg!
6 comments:
Getting really intrigued by the egg laying mechanism - yes I went through that phase :-)
I think the colour gets secrected onto the surface of the egg as the final stage of egg production. So if the egg gland isn't stretched much the colour secreting cells are closer together and spread the colour more densely - if that makes sense?
Clever, isn't it?
Celia
It is clever indeed. In fact I tell them how clever they are each morning when I collect their eggs!
Are the girls OK? Never heard of "wind egg" before, does this mean one of them is ill/upset about something?
We've had a few wind eggs last year when the girlees were new....Never had a double yolker though - most jealous! Didn't notice the smaller eggs having a deeper pigment though...
(*sigh!) to have 2 eggs a day again...
It is always a thrill to crack open a double yolker! Just like discovering buried treasure, or hitting a goldmine! Why do they happen? is it inexperienced hens?
Wind eggs and double yolkers are not particularly rare, especially with young hens. Apparently if a hens regularly lays double yolkers she won't lay so many eggs. They have, as we do, a fixed number of ova and if they come out in twos then they only come out for half as long!
Post a Comment