Double Yolks

[Sactown Chickens]

I was at the farmer's market this last weekend and bought some eggs from a local farmer (as my girls are a few weeks from giving me their own eggs). I was told that the large eggs (which I bought) were all double yolks and sure enough the couple that I have used are indeed that way. My question is....is there a type of chicken that has actually been developed to produce a double yolked egg? If not, how can they tell which have two yolks?

 

[danielbrown]

Nope, some hens just lay double yolk eggs sometimes.
You can candle them and look for two yolks.

 

[Mahonri]

I've noticed that my Sex links and my RIR give me more double yolkers.

 

[goldenluver]

RIR are known to lay double yolkers. the shell will have an elongated middle with slight edges at each end when it slopes to the round ends. you'll recognise them after you get them after just a few.

 

[Kansaseq]

I learned from BYC, that double yolkers are usually layed by young hens early in their cycle. Something about their laying mechanism not quite being fine tuned yet. I had an EE who gave me several giant, double yolkers when she started to lay. Now she just lays a larger or normal sized, single yolked egg.

But a friend at work said he had a black hen in Brazil, back when he was a kid, that gave him double yolkers every day.

 

[LaSombra]

speaking of double yolks... if one were fertilized, would there be any difference?

 

[Kansaseq]

Quote:
I have heard they don't usually develop normally, and don't usually hatch. Never tried this myself, just info I got from the great folks here at BYC.

 

[Kansaseq]

I just found this in another area on the forum. KHayward hatched out a double yolker, and this is what her results were:

"The last chick of the batch had pipped, but wasn't making further progress, so we helped it out of the shell. Lo and behold, there was a second, much smaller chick in the other end of the shell, in its own sac. It hadn't had room enough to move and pip, so it suffocated, which was probably a good thing. It had been so tightly packed that its legs and feet were deformed... it never would have walked.
The survivor's feet were ok, but one leg was permanently extended backward. We tried to straighten it, but weren't successful, so we had to put it down.

This is the first time I've had a double-yolk egg develop, and it didn't turn out well. I'm going to be more careful about culling the double-yolks from the incubator in the future."

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.CountryChickens.com

PS: I should have taken a picture, but didn't.

There is more discussion on this very subject and here is the link:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=202538​

 

[apukanski]

I just got a double yolker this morning from a gingernut ranger(RIR, light sussex) they are 4 out of 4 for the last 9 days. They are a great surprise.

 

[LaSombra]

hm. Thanks. Very interesting.