Are eggs with two yolks a result from horomones given to chickens?

Question

I got a whole flat of eggs from the fleamarket and 90% of them had double yolks . I know that there's a small chance of a chickens being able to do this like women having twins . I know that women who opt for vitro infertilization , usually have multiples . Could this be a result of horomones to make the chickens lay more eggs?

I heard of twin eggs but what are the chances ? I know just one chicken didn't lay this whole flat of eggs .

Answer 1

Double-yolked eggs are caused by entrapment of two yolks in one shell and the average frequency in nature is about 1 in 1000.

This phenomenon occurs primarily due to the age of the hen, but can also occur due to other factors such as genetic conditions (for example, heavy laying breeds).

Young hens that have not yet developed a laying pattern commonly produce double-yolked eggs. Each egg yolk starts as a follicle cell in the hen's ovary. When a follicle is released from the ovary, it reaches the funnel-shaped infundibulum.

Here is where the rooster's sperm cells get collected and fertilization occurs. Then the yolk reaches the magnum where albumin layers (part of the egg white) are added. The next part of the oviduct is the isthmus where water and more albumin are added and the `egg' gets covered by two fibrous protein membranes.

The egg then reaches the `shell gland' where it gets the hard calcium shell. Finally, the egg is laid.

Young hens sometimes secrete two follicles in quick succession from the ovary. When both of them are together in the oviduct, they get `entrapped' in the same shell leading to a double-yolked egg.

Rarely, one of the follicles remains in the infundibulum too long to be joined by the next secreted follicle leading to double-yolked eggs.

Breakage of non-follicle tissue from the ovary is sometimes mistaken as a yolk and gets covered in the oviduct with albumin and shell. This leads to an egg with no yolk inside.

Double-yolked eggs do not hatch two chicks; usually both the chicks die. There is not enough space for two chicks in the eggshell and neither of the chicks can reach the air-cell (seen in between the two membranes at one end of the egg).

Answer 2

Causes Double Yolk Eggs

Answer 3

Very large ("jumbo") eggs are more likely to have two yolks. Our chickens tend to lay the same size egg each day (some lay big ones and some lay small ones, but they do it consistently). Although we don't have any that lay big enough eggs to have two yolks, I would expect that a chicken that lays a jumbo egg every day might consistently generate two yolks.

Here's a website (not mine) that gives more info:
http://www.poultryhelp.com/oddeggs.html

Answer 4

no longer something you in common terms have been given fortunate and have been given a double yolk egg... i consistently purchase double yolked eggs when I make flans, puddings and a few cakes. if everybody on the subject rely of you or your husband interior the kinfolk had twins, then you definately are turning out to be a wager for having twins your self. the eggs replaced into in common terms a very good ask your self. ^_^

Answer 5

They are often laid by pullets just coming into lay. If the egg supplier's flock is of young birds, there will be a high percentage of double yolkers until they settle down. Eggs are also graded by size so if the supplier has picked all the large eggs and boxed them together this increases the percentage of double yolkers.

Answer 6

90% sounds really high. As a child, I remember occasional double yoked eggs before chickens were pumped full of hormones.

Answer 7

This won't answer your question, but it's an interesting related tidbit.

In America, the FDA approved giving growth hormones to cows that many European countries banned. As soon as they did, the rate of multiple births (yes, human births) shot up because of the effect that the hormones has on women that drank those hormones via cow milk

Answer 8

No, there were double yolk eggs long before there were hormones. It is perfectly normal and safe.

Answer 9

I always thought it was a twin egg.