Solid smaller egg inside a Huge egg. I mean shell and all!

[kest3hens]

We have 10 hens and they were born last 4th of July. They started laying about a month ago. Every thing was going great but we have now gotten 3 huge eggs that also contain another whole egg inside. Like those little russian nesting dolls! This is not a double yolked egg. It is literally, a double egg! Whole shelled egg inside another whole shelled egg. They also all like to lay in one nesting box inspite of us offering them 11 nesting boxes. We are getting some broken eggs because of them crowding each other. Are my girls just a bit odd or is this normal? I am a bit worried about the poor hen or hens who goes through laying these huge eggs! I'm surprised she hasn't packed her bags and left!

 

[glucke]

We have 10 hens and they were born last 4th of July. They started laying about a month ago. Every thing was going great but we have now gotten 3 huge eggs that also contain another whole egg inside. Like those little russian nesting dolls! This is not a double yolked egg. It is literally, a double egg! Whole shelled egg inside another whole shelled egg. They also all like to lay in one nesting box inspite of us offering them 11 nesting boxes. We are getting some broken eggs because of them crowding each other. Are my girls just a bit odd or is this normal? I am a bit worried about the poor hen or hens who goes through laying these huge eggs! I'm surprised she hasn't packed her bags and left!

interesting! i´ve never seen anything like this.

 

[mlm Mike]

That's really interesting, I've never heard of the egg in egg.

 

[Christie Rhae]

did you take a pic? Interesting!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That's extremely rare and to get 3 is even more amazing.
Does the outer egg have a yolk or just albumen?
It's thought to be that the ready to be laid egg reverses direction and gets a layer of albumen and shell added or will join with the next egg. Since they're so rare, no one is quite sure why it happens. Maybe when you find which girl is doing it she could be a great contributor to science.

 

[kest3hens]

Thanks for the info! The first two double eggs "outside" eggs had yolks with the white and the last one had only the white from the large outer egg. I never knew raising chickens could be so interesting!

 

[kest3hens]

Here is the picture of the egg inside an egg.

 

[tweetysvoice]

That is crazy! Poor girl, I bet that hurt! Is she laying every day? How close together did she lay these?

 

[terratad]

Wow! That's cool. I've never seen anything like that before!