Double Yolks, Double Chicks?

So I’ve been a bit on a hatching binge lately. A few weeks back I purchased 4 little bantam chicks from the local farm store. Then, I decided that I needed to find out how well the new incubator worked so I put 9 eggs in and I’ll be darned if 7 eggs didn’t hatch 21 days later!

A few days ago, my olive egger hen decided to lay one of those huge eggs that she sometimes produces and I knew that it was a double yolker.

I let the egg rest on the kitchen counter for a couple of days – gently turning it twice a day to keep the yolk from sticking to one side and finally decided that I needed to take action and get it into the incubator to try and incubate a double hatch.

Weird? Yes. Unethical? Well, the chances of one chick making it to hatch are few and far between and for both yolks to develop and grow and then both hatch is almost next to impossible but I’m thinking I need to try it at least once. I’ve not had the opportunity just yet to candle this egg and see if anything is starting to develop, but once it does I’ll be watching it so closely.

According to Google, the chances of having a double yolked egg is one in every 100 eggs so the odds of developing chicks from such an egg are even smaller. Usually one chick out competes the other and one will survive and the other will not.

I can’t say how many times I’ve struggled with the thought and the know that one chick may hatch and be raised by itself.

That thought is quickly replaced though by the hope and the prayer that both chicks survive to hatching and I manage to catch the whole crazy thing on recording.

A bit of this is, I think, the farmer mentality – try it and see if it works. If it doesn’t, don’t do it again and learn the lesson.

The day of truth is coming up within the next day or so when I candle the egg for the first time and discover growth or just two black blobs (the yolks) moving around beneath the shell.

Stay tuned for what happens next.