Now that Spring has sprung, I’m back to buying eggs from the vendors at the Charlottesville City Market rather than from the good folks at Market Street Market.

Saturday’s purchase was from Liberty Farm and included an unusually large egg. Sure enough, when I cracked it open–

two yolks! It was (they were?) delicious. But why do double-yolk eggs occur? They’re usually produced by young hens with immature reproductive systems that release two yolks at once. Less often, stress could make an older hen could pop out a double-yolker. Double-yolking can be hereditary.

For a household of only two humans, we go through A LOT of eggs, but this was my first double-yolk experience. In fact, double-yolk eggs are quite rare: apparently, the probability of getting a two-yolk egg is 1/1000, but I couldn’t find an explanation of that number and what it takes into account. One would think the relative probability of finding a double-yolker in a carton of local, small-farm eggs would be much higher than finding one in a carton of graded commercial eggs, because the USDA grading and sorting process typically excludes these abnormal eggs.

I read that finding a double-yolk egg is good luck. Seems it’s also good luck for the chicken, as the layer of your lucky egg is more likely to be a local, small-farm hen, and good luck for the farmer who sold you the lucky egg and pockets your cash. Everybody wins when you buy local eggs!

If you’re interested in other wacky eggs, check out http://www.poultryhelp.com/oddeggs.html.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_yolk#Double-yolk_eggs
http://www.wilcoxfarms.com/news/how-common-are-eggs-with-double-yolks/
http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2011/04/13/what-causes-double-yolks/
http://www.eggsafety.org/consumers/consumer-faqs
http://keep-hens-raise-chickens.com/eggs/double-egg-yolks
http://curbstonevalley.com/blog/?p=3612