Is this possible? How would a crisp shell develop inside? Or is this something put up by those pesky magicians?? Cool, none the less.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wubgAIiWpY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wubgAIiWpY
Ex-chicken farmer here... 4-H, APA, all that rot.
This sort of thing is easily possible and, in fact, not too uncommon. The egg's development is in stages, starting out with a yolk that leaves the ovaries and passes through the oviduct. It then gets "plated" with the egg white in the infundibulum, and then the shell is attached later, starting in the magnum.
Now, once in a while -- maybe 1 in 1000 -- the egg can accidentally reverse its flow. If it passes back into the infundibulum after getting a shell, the complete egg will acquire a second layer of white, and then a second shell.
Another not-too-uncommon occurrence is a double-yolk egg. In this case, the second yolk catches up with the first, and both get a common white and a common shell. This is more typical. A high-producing fowl can crank out nearly 300 eggs in a year, and some average more than 1 per day! Lots of eggs on the assembly line at any given time.
The egg in this video is unusual in that it is both a double-shell and a double-yolk. I never saw one like this, but the mechanics are the same. I find it to be totally credible.
The other oddity one sometimes encounters is a "shell-less" egg. Sometimes the egg doesn't get a proper coating of shell, particularly if the chicken is calcium-deficient, but the shell membrane is enough to hold things together. This results in an egg that looks and acts like soft rubber.
ETA: Something for the lady chickens...
This sort of thing is easily possible and, in fact, not too uncommon. The egg's development is in stages, starting out with a yolk that leaves the ovaries and passes through the oviduct. It then gets "plated" with the egg white in the infundibulum, and then the shell is attached later, starting in the magnum.
Now, once in a while -- maybe 1 in 1000 -- the egg can accidentally reverse its flow. If it passes back into the infundibulum after getting a shell, the complete egg will acquire a second layer of white, and then a second shell.
Another not-too-uncommon occurrence is a double-yolk egg. In this case, the second yolk catches up with the first, and both get a common white and a common shell. This is more typical. A high-producing fowl can crank out nearly 300 eggs in a year, and some average more than 1 per day! Lots of eggs on the assembly line at any given time.
The egg in this video is unusual in that it is both a double-shell and a double-yolk. I never saw one like this, but the mechanics are the same. I find it to be totally credible.
The other oddity one sometimes encounters is a "shell-less" egg. Sometimes the egg doesn't get a proper coating of shell, particularly if the chicken is calcium-deficient, but the shell membrane is enough to hold things together. This results in an egg that looks and acts like soft rubber.
ETA: Something for the lady chickens...
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quixotecoyote
Howling to glory I go
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I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems both appropriate and amusing that you were a chicken farmer.
jasonpatterson
Philanthropic Misanthrope
portlandatheist
Illuminator
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I have 3 chickens and I've had a few double yolks with HUGE shells but never a shell within a shell. I imagine it wouldn't be very pleasant to lay an egg that big
jasonpatterson
Philanthropic Misanthrope
The page I linked said that the largest chicken egg ever was double shelled, double yolked and was 9 inches. I'm not sure how a chicken could survive such a thing.
Thanks so much, people. I am constantly amazed at the variety of knowledge shown by the posters here. I had always assumed that the eggshell took some time to dry and harden to it's crisp consistency after being expelled and was amazed that the second smaller egg was so crackable without any air drying time. Apparently I was mistaken....once again.
The eggshell does "dry" -- a freshly laid egg is still a bit wet, and usually takes about a minute or so to dry completely. However, what's drying is not the calcium carbonate shell itself, but rather a coating that helps keep bacteria from entering the pores. The calcium carbonate itself literally crystallizes out of solution, using specialized proteins on the outer membrane for nucleation points, and is basically hard as soon as it's deposited.
The noble chicken deserves better press. Quite a fascinating creature.
The noble chicken deserves better press. Quite a fascinating creature.