The amazing phenomenon of double yolk eggs, how they compare to single yolk store eggs, and tips on getting more of these beauties from your hens!
One of the biggest benefits of keeping backyard chickens is that you get to enjoy eggs that you would rarely (if ever) come across buying organic store eggs.
Eggs you generally don’t see in cartons from the store are what’s called “double yolkers”. They are roughly the size of duck eggs!
Another example is eggs with “meat spots”.
Below is a picture of a double yolk egg that one of my newly laying White Leghorn hens gifted us recently.
Note the size of the double yolker compared to a single yolk egg.
These two eggs were laid by the same young hen!
I really hit the jackpot with this sweet bird ❤️
As you can see from the picture above, each yolk in the double egg is roughly the same size as the yolk in the single egg.
Since the yolk is the most nutritious part of an egg (can you believe some folks still throw them out?), you really do get “two for the price of one”.
While I am fortunate to have a hen that is only six months old laying double yolkers, these beauties typically come from older hens.
This is why you don’t see double yolk eggs in the store from industrialized farms even if organically certified.
Hens from mass production farms are normally culled for meat after only a year or so….as soon as their egg production starts to drop or their first molt, whichever comes first, according to what I’ve been told by those in the industry.
The commercial egg industry also prefers eggs from young hens (under a year and a half old) as this ensures uniformity of size for packing/shipping in egg cartons.
Eggs get larger in size with the age of the hen in my experience. Hence, the propensity for double yolk eggs from older birds.
If you’ve never seen double yolk eggs before, why not?
Are you still supporting the industrial food complex by purchasing eggs at the store?
Note that store eggs, even if organic, may be weeks old (or months old if partially frozen in storage) by the time you buy them. In addition, they are washed with undesirable chemicals as this is required in the United States.
Because eggshells are porous, some of this is no doubt getting into the eggs!
Read more details about the scam of organic store eggs and organic egg washing practices at the provided links.
Contrary to popular belief, a nutritious egg is not all about the yolk color, because this can easily be manipulated with feed to fool the consumer if the hens aren’t truly pastured.
I recommend getting your eggs from one of the sources below to ensure legit yolk color and to avoid the toxic practices that are allowed under USDA Organic for mass production facilities.
- Your own backyard coop (best)
- A neighbor
- Farmer’s market
- Independently owned health food stores that source from local egg farms.
You don’t need any double blind studies to see and taste the difference.
Your five senses will do just fine, thank you!
Even better would be to have all chickens and therefore eggs to never be fed any grains like corn and soy, especially!
I am a chicken mamma and my oldest ones are 3 years old. I have another take on the double yolk eggs. The hens’ intricate machinery has an occasional hiccup and there is a delay on the production line that allocates the egg components, resulting in large eggs and probably some discomfort at the end of the process.
My free range hens, fed only organic home made feed, lay beautiful, well shaped eggs with hard shells. In 3 years they have never laid a double yolker and I am proud of this. To me it means they are healthy, well balanced and do not have to deal with a passage of unusually large eggs.
You could be right. I’ve kept hens for going on 15 years, and the older my hens get, the more doubles they lay (they free range in an unsprayed yard and I use organic, soaked feed for optimal digestion). I do think some breeds are more predisposed to it. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/how-to-soak-chicken-feed/
Hhmmm I wonder why they taste so great… fresh farm eggs??? No chemicals produced feed here for these chickens to mass produce quantity, taste etc. right?? That is the stupidest thing I have ever read organic or not organic these taste amazing. My god your suppose to be a healthy food advisor and you don’t promote healthy organic??? I call this a fake website and money scamming. You want a healthy living without health problems, it should be only organic food you eat. For those of you who do get the opportunity to purchase fresh farm eggs, make sure and see what the farmer is feeding those chickens / animals, make sure it is organically produced feed. I was born, raised and grew up in a farm and have seen all the scams of the day including false labelling pretending they sell fresh organic farm eggs. This can be very damaging to the immune system long term. Don’t be fooled everyone, it will catch up on your health later years, not tomorrow or next month or next year, but in let’s say 15 to 20+ years. Good luck!
We have chickens and ducks. So far we have not had double yolks with the young chickens, but we do with the young duck. Oh my gosh, they look like dinosaur eggs! LOL I count them as 2 eggs when I bake. Love having our own eggs again, and we give some to our kids every week also. Even one duck laying one egg almost every day is a tremendous plus for how far the eggs go. You just cannot buy eggs from the store like your own!
What state are you win? I was getting jumbo eggs at trader Joe’s. One carton had 8 of 12 double yolks! But the really hard to find these days. I do love the surprise of a double yolk eggs!
Nice to know that a bigger egg is a sign that it comes from an older hen, and an older hen likely gets a chance to live that much longer since their living conditions are probably better.
I often buy jumbo eggs at Trader Joe’s. Such a deal – I love the surprise when I hit a double yolk! The percentage of doubles in the Trader Joe’s jumbo’s varies though – it seems to range between 25 – 50%. But what fun – and just $1.99/dozen!
Bu tI would sure like to try eggs from that farmer in Vermont who lets them roam freely over his compost heap, mainly to add their manure to his compost. (Composting being his main business.) He spends nothing on chicken feed, herds them into a barn at night, and the eggs just became a sideline business!
We live in Jeddah. Here a lot of brown double-yolk eggs are available in the Bab-Makkah kitchen market. These eggs are grown in far-flunk areas of the kingdom. These eggs seem to be healthy and vigorous too. Specially, during winter, the laying of this type increases as it is seen more and more in the markets.
I raise a few ducks just for their beautiful large eggs! An they’re cute to boot!