Double Yolk Eggs

[foxhaven]

Would double yolked eggs hatch 2 chicks? has this ever been seen?

[jim360]

This has been asked on internet forums quite a few times, so apparently yes it is possible (but doesn't happen very often). Perhaps more likely to end in an effective miscarriage if the egg shell is not large enough to accommodate both chicks.

[foxhaven]

jim360- thanks for that - I had a look on YouTube and watched a video of a successful hatching but it was helped by someone with penknife! - so probably they wouldn't have made it out alive without help

[2sp_]

We've had live and dead chicks hatched with four legs or four wings. I'm sure they come from double yolkers and don't usually live very long. Sometimes chicks have extra toes though and it doesn't seem to bother them.

[wolf63]

If you could breed them to have four breasts you would make a fortune.

[2sp_]

That's the plan, wolf... ;-)

[Baldric]

Don't breed them with 4 legs, you'll never catch them!

[starone]

And of course they would have to be fertilised - it takes two to tango!

[wildwood]

An unassisted successful hatching - as you said - has not been recorded (yet). The hatching process is com[licated and involves the chick chipping against the inside which turns it around in minute proportions. For two chicks to do this in syncro would be extremely rare. The dominant chick usually forces its weight against the weaker one which often dies in the egg. If this happens prior to 2 days before hatching due, the dead chick will poison the egg content and both will die.

All chicks that hatch from a egg clutch are twins, triplet, quads, quins etc. depending on the number of eggs. They are no different from each other than the two in one egg. To get an genetical twin there needs to be a normal single yolked egg where the embryo (zygote) splits at an very early stage of development... this inevitably results in one or both of the chicks dying because of room and available yolk for food.

[foxhaven]

Thanks to all Egg heads for their response

[harrylggy]

I have seen double yolked eggs. And i don't know the conditions occurring during double yolked eggs hatchery.