Chicken/Egg Question

[GaryM]

Now I'm first to admit that I am not an expert on a great many subjects, and one of those things are chickens. Things I don't know much about that is.

Bought some Jumbo Brown eggs at the supermarket last week. Didn't care that they were brown, but wanted to try the jumbo size.

Have used 9 of the dozen and they are all double yoked. Were not marked as such on the box. Just marked Jumbo Brown.

This raises several questions in my mind.

Are all jumbo eggs double yoked? Or do they candle them and select for double yokes?

Is the fact that they are brown a factor? Wouldn't think so. But refer to the part where I say I don't know much about chickens.

If they knew that they were all doubles, why not mark it on the container?

What breed of chicken lays brown eggs?

Make me smarter! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Al_Wa]

<font color="blue"> What breed of chicken lays brown eggs?
</font color>

Dark pigmented chickens.

[ljh2]

Gary,
There are quite a few different breeds that lay brown eggs. There are some chickens that even lay blue or turquoise eggs. You can find out quite a bit about different breeds at Murray McMurray Hatchery.

One of the large breeds that produce brown eggs are the New Hampshire Reds , others include the Barred Rocks and the Rhode Island Reds.

I don't believe that there is any specific correlation between the 'jumbo' egg designation and the double yolks, just that the double yolk eggs are probably more likely to meet the size/dimensions required to grade into the 'jumbo' size.



larry
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[GaryM]

Is this a great place or what!

OK, now that leads to a followup question:

Can double yoke eggs hatch two chicks?

[Tami]

An egg is designated as Jumbo because of it's weight. A double yolked egg will not hatch 2 chicks- sorry. There are many breeds of chickens that lay brown eggs. Mine lay either brown or green eggs.

[GaryM]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />

A double yolked egg will not hatch 2 chicks- sorry.

[/ QUOTE ]

Guess it would be kind of crowded in there. So laying double yoked eggs wouldn't be a good thing in the wild.

[Tami]

I don't know. This is just what I have been told. I haven't seen any hatch either. My kids tend to get so excited about about double yolks but then I did to. One of my hens lays Jumbos about every day and alot of them are double yolk. I think it must hurt her. Sometimes she waits for a crowd to gather around and then picks the center nest box and then begins to cackle. If I dare check on her she stops and gives me a "how dare you?" look and stalks off angrily. She seems to need the support of the crowd. She is a "Buff Orpinton", a very sweet and gentle gold colored hen and lays brown eggs.

[rfawkes]

I have dominiques and new hampshire reds, and they both lay brown eggs, and occassionally lay a double yolker. They do squeal a little when they lay them. I even got one egg that appeared to be 2 eggs together, it was so long, and had striation marks in the middle. It was a double yolker.

[Stoneheartfarm]

We have Rhode Island Reds and Isa (sp?) Browns. Both lay brown eggs. One of the six Isa's lays a jumbo egg everytime. It is so large that it will not fit in a regular x-large egg carton. The other Isa's have never (or rarely) laid jumbo eggs.

Steve

[Jonathan]

Gary, I'm not an expert either. I've raised them for about 2 years but read most of 4 books trying to learn. Chicks develop from embryos and not yolks. The yolk (and the white) are food for the developing chick. McMurray's Hatchery says the yolk is absorbed by the chick right before hatching, so a double yolk might cause problems. I don't know cause I haven't hatched any. When my Rhode Island Reds began laying, about 90% of the eggs were double yolked and seemed big. But they calmed down and laid normal eggs after about 2 months. A double yolk is rare now. The eggs seem to get bigger as the chickens age, but they lay fewer of them now. And the family still get excited when there's a double yolk. I suppose two is always better'n one. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]