DOUBLE YOLK EGGS（雙黃蛋）: Double Yolkers appear when ovulation occurs too rapidly, or when one yolk somehow gets "lost" and is joined by the next yolk. Double yolkers may be by a pullet whose productive cycle is not yet well synchronized. They're occasionally laid by a heavy-breed hen, often as an inherited trait.
The photo below shows a double yolk egg laid by either a Barred Rock or Rhode Island Red hen owned by Shelley Madden-Kemp, near Fort Worth, Texas on January 29, 2005. The left photo shows the size of the double yolker next to a reguar sized BR/RIR egg and the right photo shows the double yolker broken open in a soup bowl.
NO YOLK（無黃蛋）: No-yolkers are called "dwarf", "wind" [or, more commonly, "fart"] eggs.Such an egg is most often a pullet's first effort, produced before her laying mechanism is fully geared up. In a mature hen, a wind egg is unlikely, but can occur if a bit of reproductive tissue breaks away, stimulating the egg producing glands to treat it like a yolk and wrap it in albumen, membranes and a shell as it travels through the egg tube. You can tell this has occurred if, instead of a yolk, the egg contains a small particle of grayish tissue. In the old days, no yolkers were called "cock" eggs. Since they contained no yolk and therefore can't hatch, our forebears believed they were laid by roosters. This type of egg occurs in many varieties of fowl. We've found them in chickens, both standard and bantams, guineas and Coturnix Quail (about the size of a small marble).
Normal Barred Rock egg and Barred Rock fart egg
Barred Rock fart egg - no yolk inside
MORE THAN TWO YOLKS（多黃蛋）: Occasionally, an egg contains more than two yolks. I once found a pullet's egg that contained three. The greatest number of yolks found in one egg is NINE. Record breaking eggs are likely to be multiple yolkers. The Guinness Book of Records lists the world's largest [chicken] egg (with a diameter of 9 inches/22.5 cm) as having five yolks and the heaviest egg (1 pound/0.45 kg) as having a double yolk and a double shell.
NO SHELL（無殼蛋（看到的是內(nèi)殼膜））: Every once in a while we get an egg with a membrane, but without a shell. It feels like a water balloon. This is another accident of the hen's reproductive system and is not necessarily an indication of any problem. The membrane was placed on the yolk and white, but it somehow slipped past the "shell mechanism" and the shell wasn't deposited. The photo below (left) is of an egg without a shell laid by one of our Barred Rock hens on 15 September 2004. The photo was taken 3 days later and the membrane had already begun drying up. The photo on the right was sent by Jen Peters of Mendocino County Calif.. it was freshly laid by one of her chickens in mid-June, 2010. You can see right through the membrane. (2010 - Jen Peters )
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EGG WITHIN AN EGG（蛋中蛋）: An egg within an egg, or a double shelled egg appears when an egg that is nearly ready to be laid reverses direction and gets a new layer of albumen covered by a second shell. Sometimes the reversed egg joins up with the next egg and the two are encased together within a new shell. Double shelled eggs are so rare that no one knows exactly why or how they happen. The photo below was provided by one of our website visitors, Michelle Byerly, of Jasper, Texas. The bowl is a standard single serving cereal bowl. The egg was laid either by a Buff Orpington or a Black Australorp in early 2004. The egg found inside the other had no yolk (fart egg).
Easter-Egger Egg-in-Egg next to normal egg. The egg-in-Egg weighed 5.4 ounces.
Outer shell opened to reveal internal egg
To see more photos of this egg-within-an-egg submitted by a website visitor, click HERE. You'll have to use your browser's BACK buttom to get back to this page.
ODD SHAPED EGGS（畸形蛋）:
This happens from time to time and is just an "accident". The long, thin egg below was laid by one of our Barred Rock hens in June, 2004. It is over 2 1/2 inches long and less than 1 1/4 inches across the middle.
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VERY ODD SHAPED EGGS!（怪狀蛋）:
Hen Produces Spoon-Shaped Egg - from www.ananova.com (UK online news service) 31 January 2005
A Chinese hen has produced a spoon-shaped egg. The hen is owned by Huang Yazhou, a railway worker from Huaibei city, Anhui province, reports Chinanews.com. One morning, Huang awoke to hear the hen, which he bought from a market two months ago, making weird noises. When he checked, Huang found the hen had laid a spoon-shaped egg, 8.5 centimeters long and 35 grammes in weight. Huang said he had never seen an egg like it before in his life.
Egg Found in China with Tail - from www.ananova.com (UK online news service) 04 March 2005
An egg in China has been found with a tail. The egg, found by chef Wang at his restaurant in Anyang city, Henan province, is normal size, but has a tail that is 3 cm long. It is not known why the egg has the tail reports Dahe Daily. Wang says he wants to hatch the egg and see what will come out.
BLOOD /meat SPOTS（血斑/肉斑蛋）: BLOOD SPOTS: Blood spots occur when blood or a bit of tissue is released along with a yolk. Each developing yolk in a hen's ovary is enclosed in a sack containing blood vessels that supply yolk building substances. When the yolk is mature, it is normally released from the only area of the yolk sac, called the "stigma" or "suture line", that is free of blood vessels. Occasionally, the yolk sac ruptures at some other point, causing blood vessels to break and blood to appear on the yolk or in the white. As an egg ages, the blood spot becomes paler, so a bright blood spot is a sign that the egg is fresh.
Blood spots occur in less than one percent of all eggs laid. They may appear in a pullet's first few eggs, but are more likely to occur as hens get older, indicating that it's time to cull. Blood spots may be triggered by too little vitamin A in a hen's diet, or they may be hereditary - if you hatch replacement pullets from a hen that characteristically lays spotted eggs, your new flock will likely do the same.
MEAT SPOTS Meat spots are even less common than blood spots. They appear as brown, reddish brown, tan, gray or white spots in an egg, usually on or near the yolk. Such a spot may have started out as a blood spot that changed color due to chemical reaction, or it may be a bit of reproductive tissue. Since meat spots look unappetizing, cull a hen whose eggs characteristically contain them.
WORMY EGGS（含蟲蛋）: Wormy eggs are extremely rare, occurring only in hens with a high parasite load. Finding a worm in an egg is not only unappetizing, but is a clear indication that you are not doing a good job in keeping your hens healthy and parasite-free.
SHELL DISCOLORATION（污色殼蛋）: This is fairly common and occurs most often in brown eggs. The pigment is sometimes deposited on the egg unevenly during production resulting in one end being a light tan and the other a darker brown. The large end usually has the darker color. The deposit of the pigment rarely forms a recognizable pattern (like seeing shapes in clouds), but click HERE for more info about the happy face egg we found laid here on 6 August 2000.
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OFF FLAVOR（異味蛋）: Off flavor eggs may result from something the hen ate or from environmental odors. Hens that eat onions, garlic, fruit peelings, fish meal, and fish oil will lay eggs with an undesirable flavor. Eggs can also absorb odors that translate into unpleasant flavors if they're stored near kerosene, carbolic acid, mold, must, fruits and vegetables.
