Do I have twins?

[Delmar]

I was candling my eggs a few days ago and one of them didn't appear to be as far along as the rest. Veins not as dark, that kind of thing. Two days later I noticed that instead of one dark spot that the veins centered around, there are two dark spots. Does this mean I have twins developing? If so are twins any less likely to develop normally?

 

[LilyD]

Wow I don't know the answer but I am sure watching your post to see what others say I never would have thought that you could get twins in one egg.

 

[bryan99705]

Double yolks are not uncommon but never heard of two birds from one egg

Please keep us posted

 

[tinychicky]

if there are two yolks, most likely only on chick, the stronger one, will hatch, the other will die partially formed. you probably won't get twins, but you might get a chick with a siamese twin (maybe) def. keep us posted!

 

[Ukmumbrood3]

It's possible! Check out speckledhens thread, awesome read! She documented the whole process of her "twins"
There's also been another couple of success stories on here too.
Keep us posted!

 

[Imp]

Here's a long fascinating thread with a successful hatching of twins. It's very rare, but possible

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=104245

Imp

 

[CCourson05]

In most situations, if twins fully develop and both make it to lockdown, the odds of them hatching are about 5%. You can help them out though. They normally don't hatch themselves due to the lack of a strong support behind them to push off of. When they push, the other chick is squished. The other chick screams, and they both stop to avoid hurting one another. They then both die.

 

[Mmmatt13]

I recently read that if a yolk is double fertilized, it may result in a gynandromorphic bird. A gynandromorph is essentially both male and female, it is split literally in half, male and female. One half of the body will look like a male, the other a female. Something like only 1 in 10,000 hatched is gynandromorphic.
I'm curious to see what happens with yours.

 

[Delmar]

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Thanks for the heads up on these two threads. I am pretty sure that mine is a double fertilized yolk rather than a double yoker, so I don't know how likely it is for this to work out. I do know there is a good chance that we will not be available to help, since our daughter is due with our first grandson, the same day the eggs are due to hatch. I am mildly tempted to go ahead and pull that egg out of the bator, but I don't think my curiosity will allow me to take that coarse of action.

 

[Delmar]

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That ss that what they call a Chimera, I think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_%28genetics%29

If I do end up with a Chimera I hope both are the same gender.