⠀ New hens laying an awful lot of gigantic double yolk eggs...

[DonQueso]

I have four hens that have recently started laying and around 30% of the eggs are gigantic double yolk eggs. My poor birds are going to split in half. Is this a normal developmental occurrence or is there something I need to adjust in their diet?

 

[Greenlight Farm]

Great question, one of my chicks laid an egg the other day that was hands down the biggest egg I've ever seen. It was at least twice the size of my duck eggs; looked more like a turkey egg

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I have four hens that have recently started laying and around 30% of the eggs are gigantic double yolk eggs. My poor birds are going to split in half. Is this a normal developmental occurrence or is there something I need to adjust in their diet?

Large, double yolked eggs are very common with new layers (and also with layers approaching the end of their reproductive life) - as impossible as it can seem to us, they pass them safely. The reproductive system of a new layer will have all sorts of glitches and oddities as all the moving parts start to operate in unison and figure out how to build the "perfect" egg. What breed(s) are your birds? As for whether there may be dietary concerns, not necessarily related to the eggs you are getting as that is more a developmental issue, to answer that you would need to share what you are currently feeding your flock.

 

[DonQueso]

I have two Sex Links and two Australorps, all about 6 months old. Their physical appearance as well as behavior appears to be very healthy. We feed them a non-medicated pellet layer feed from Neutrina. I add grit and oyster shell (about 2% by volume) to their feed. The shells are very strong and uniform. Beyond that, we give them plain yogurt 2-3 times a week and many fruit/vegetable/grain snacks. They're very happy and apparently healthy, I just wasn't sure if the double yolk eggs were due to development or due to diet. Thank you very much for your help!

 

[Blooie]

Yep, those ostrich eggs can and do come out of our little chickens. When I brought in one even bigger than these he asked me, "Which one laid THAT?" I told him to run out the coop and see which one was limping! The egg that I've shown here was really odd. It not only had double yolk, but also was a complete double egg - two inner whites, two outer whites, and two yolk. But if you look closely at the photo, you'll see only one chalazae. I nicked on yolk with a shard of shell, doggone it.

It's now a year later and although Ida the little red sex link still lays beautiful eggs and lays regularly, these have become far and few between. Now it's the new layers giving us double yolkers. But this time I'm not worried. I know their laying routine will settle out as soon as all the parts are in sync, and then the occasional double yolk egg will be a treat again.

 

[DrPatrickBiggs]

The earlier responses have been correct. As hens begin to lay they have an increased incidence of producing double and sometimes triple yolk eggs. The incidence decreases as they age. The size of the normal egg, that isn't double yolked, is influenced by a number of factors. Breed, age and age at first egg. Heavier breeds lay larger eggs and egg size increases with age. If birds are hatched early in the season and are older when they begin to lay, they will lay larger eggs. And of course the opposite is true if they are hatched later in the season.
Nutrition can affect the quality of the egg and egg shell and that is why it is important to feed a complete and balanced layer feed. However nutrition is not responsible for producing double or triple yolk eggs. That is due to the physiology of the hen as she transitions to a layer feed.