Double yolks---question

[logansmommy7]

I have a hen (or hens, I don't really know) that about every few days lays a really huge egg. I cracked the first one today and indeed, it is a double yolk. Does this mean that this particular hen is REALLY happy/healthy? Just wondering...It appears one of these large eggs got stuck trying to come out, it had a line around the middle of it and was a little oddly shaped. Hope it doesn't become a problem...

 

[LynneP]

I have a hen like that who is a year old. She is also the alpha. Just be sure she gets enough feeds with either oil or suet to keep her feathercoat lustrous and her membranes healthy. You feed layer mash or pellets with added oyster shell? Needed...or provide in coop.

I put a block of wild bird suet in the coop , in a wire holder, about once every 9 days and I find she uses it the most.

 

[logansmommy7]

Upon further research the egg with the "line" through the middle may have been where two eggs fused?? All I can say is poor thing-those big eggs must hurt!

 

[caralouise1974]

Double yolkers aren't necessarily a sign of really great health. Neither are they always a bad thing.

I can only tell you that my bluebelle lays enormous eggs, daily, since February, including quite a few double yolkers, and she is very sickly. She 'superovulates', occasionally up to four yolks being released in one day (which of course is not at all healthy for her), (resulting in, for example a double yolker in the morning, a soft shell at lunchtime and another soft shell in the evening), and has been to the vet several times because of complications which have almost killed her.

Our BO, on the other hand, who lays relatively small eggs by comparison, and only around five a week, is fabulously healthy and happy.

Others may tell you that the odd uncomplicated double yolker being laid is a sign that a hen is doing well. She certainly wouldn't be able to support double yolkers if she were malnourished, for example, so a seriously unhealthy or badly nourished hen wouldn't lay double yolkers.

You need to be sure that this girl gets what she needs to form these eggs properly - plenty of calcium for the shells and perhaps some extra protein in the form of sunflower seeds. Our girl Bella has to take prescribed calcium supplements, to ensure the soft shells are kept toa minimum.