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6 double yolk eggs in one box, yummy coincidence or intensive farming?

We received an email this morning asking about double yolk eggs and what the chances were of getting 6 in one box!

Here are the questions from the email with our answers:

Question: How common is it to get a double yoke from one egg?

BigBarn: Fairly common if the chickens have only just started laying, are fed lots of food and are a certain breed.

Question: Is this a common occurrence?

BigBarn: It is probably more common in intensive farming where all the chickens are the exactly the same age, breed and fed high protein diets

Question: If it is a rare occurrence then how rare would 6 eggs be?

BigBarn: I wouldn’t be surprised if the intensive farms have worked out how to detect double yokers (they are often larger) and occasionally put them all in the same box for PR reasons.

BigBarn Office chuck

BigBarn Office chuck

Question: I was very surprised to discover that all 6 eggs from the same box were in fact double yoke eggs!

BigBarn: If double yoke eggs are larger they are more likely to be in the same box so they all look the same.

I am not an egg farmer but do have 5 happy free range chickens. We occasionally get a double yolker which is usually larger. I think from the reasons above 6 double yolkers in one box is not a coincidence more an example of intensive production and uniform packing lines.

I would rather have local free range eggs any day!

We welcome your thoughts.

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