Daughter posed a question: What happens if you incubate a double yolk?

[Thunderbolt]

Daughter posed a question: What happens if you incubate a double yolk egg? The question came up today after we got a HUGE brown egg from the coup. I don't even know if it's possible but, could it be a triple?
Thanks for any help.

 

[matthewschickens]

I think I read on another post that maybe one might live but it is not likely they will both live.
I would not try it.

Matthew

 

[speckledhen]

Could be it's just a single yolked egg. Have had ones with humongous yolks in them, just one yolk in a 3.5 ounce egg! Most of the time, it doesn't turn out well. It's very, very rare that it can work since the chick must push against the shell to get out and the other one would be in the way. Plus, they are usually positioned opposite to each other, meaning both cannot reach the aircell.

 

[Akane]

Most of the time you get nothing. Aside from the difficulties with hatching nearly all the ones I set quit by the 2nd week of incubation. Sometimes people manage to get one chick but having both make it to hatch and come out healthy without deformities is extremely rare and requires intervention to get them both out of the egg.

 

[chickenlover456]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=123844

I had a similar question a while ago and got some very thoughtful responses. Nice to know that I share the curiousity of a child

Interesting topic though, huh?

 

[Carolyn]

One of the members had a video and moment by riveting moment of a sucessful hatch of a double yolker last year. I could not find the post...I think her name was needsmorechickens....she was from Gibson, TN. I know it is very rare to be sucessful and unless you are experimenting vs trying to hatch the healthiest chickens possible I don't think it is recommended you try it cause at least one is going to have a hard time.

I really don't see how you'd come up with cojoined twins. You have two entirely separate yolks (ova) in the same shell. Conjoined twins in humans start with one ova, which in the process of dividing to make identical twins does not completely divide.

 

[al6517]

It is rare that any survive but I have heard of the occasional success.

AL

 

[Thunderbolt]

Thanks for the response. I figured with this wealth of knowlege I would get an answer.

 

[Akane]

Since the chicks aren't in their own seperate membrane weird things can happen that they grow together. Someone had one recently hatch that had part of the other chick which never finished developing attached to it. That's one reason the odds of deformities is higher.

 

[chickeypeep101]

weird things can happen. The chicks may not make it or one might and in rare cases two.