A Spallumcheen farmer has quite an egg tale.
No yolk about it.
The man known as Chicken Man had one of his chickens lay an egg inside of an egg, an incredibly rare feat according to poultryhelp.com.
“He gave me the egg, I went to fry up the egg when out popped the second egg,” said Chicken Man’s neighbour, who gave her name only as Susan, the recipient of the egg.
Chicken Man’s egg, which resembles a goose egg, measured 203 millimetres from end-to-end, and 165 mm in the middle.
“I’ve never had a double egg before, or ever had one that big. When I first saw it I thought it was a double-yolker, I’ve had lots of those before,” said Chicken Man, who has been raising chickens for 30 years.
Susan and her husband Googled double eggs and discovered only 11 times since 1942 has a chicken laid an egg within an egg.
According to the website, an egg within an egg, or a double-shelled egg, appears when an egg that is nearly ready to be laid reverses direction and gets a new layer of albumen covered by a second shell (albumen is the clear substance that surrounds the yolk of an egg).
Sometimes the reversed egg joins up with the next egg and the two are encased together within a new shell.
The website states that double-shelled eggs are so rare that no one knows exactly why or how they happen.
The site shows a photo from 2004 provided by a resident of Jasper, Texas, whose egg was laid either by a Buff Orpinton or a Black Australorp.
Chicken Man’s rare double-shelled egg was laid by a brown leghorn.
“I don’t think it matters what kind of bird it is, if it happens it happens,” said Chicken Man.
