Double Yolked Eggs in Free Range Chickens

November 25-27 Happy Hen Farms Informational Newsletter

Good Evening, 

Here is the full, formal, fun fact filled, weekly update! 

Eggs: 

There are about 8 Lg dzn's available, as well as about 37 dzn md dzn's. Don't forget about the "buy 2 Md dzn's, get 1 md dzn half off!"

Fun Fact of the Week: 

   Last week, I got a question about whether double yolked eggs are more common in free range chickens or not. I figured that this might have been a question that popped into some of your minds after cracking open one of those double yolked eggs. 

   In conventional egg farms, and even large cage free and free range egg farms (1,000-30 million hens(yes, even that big:) eggs are given a quality check before they are packaged. There are machines that candle (shine light thru the egg to examine the contents) and weigh eggs. By doing this, most double yolked eggs are either discarded, or slip past and get placed into a larger egg category based on weight (your "worst-best-bet" for finding double yolker's in the store would be to buy Jumbo eggs). 

Double yolks are more common in either really young hens, or very old hens. Young hens are trying to get their systems kicked into gear, whereas old hens lay super large eggs, and tend to have a well worn "internal gearbox," letting yolks pass into the oviduct easier. Even during these two stages of a chicken's life, double yolks are still considered rare.  

If you want to know exactly how an egg is made on a daily basis, click here

   Free range chickens generally have more protein in their diets, which usually comes from grasses and bugs, leaves, ect... on top of their regular feed. Depending on the size of egg farm, the hens' feed is changed on a weekly/monthly basis, depending on season, age of the bird, previous performance... but generally the protein % never exceeds 22% protein. 

My reasoning to explain the recent double yolk phenomenon would be that it is in correlation with my chickens' protein %. Starting around the end of October, I started making an extra feed supplement that is around 20% protein, and adding it to the chickens regular 16% protein feed, that is when I started getting double yolked eggs very frequently. In total, they get about 36% of their diet as protein, which is really high for chicken feeds. Most "complete layer feeds" are 16-18% protein. (The remaining %'s are vitamins, minerals, carbs, fiber, ect...)

I originally started formulating this mix as a way to get the small eggs up to size quicker, but didn't think that it would cause such a dramatic increase in size of the big eggs. Turned out to be kind of a win-win that is very cost effective as well.  

The mix contains 7 ingredients: 

N. GM Corn

Wheat

Peas (this is something that I "swear" by; it works wonders with the eggs)

Calcium

Oats

Barley

Molasses

   Now you're probably thinking "why are so many ingredients needed to make 1-4 double yolked eggs/dzn?"

A: animals in general, cannot get a "complete meal" from one feed ingredient. While chickens could theoretically survive on just corn, and nothing else, their health and structure would be in critical condition. Corn is relatively low in protein (9%) and vitamins, minerals, but high in starch. This makes corn a good ingredient for winter feeds and weight gain in general (both humans and animals). When mixed with a variety of ingredients with varying protein, vitamin, trace minerals, ect... the animal can be healthy and fully functioning. 

Humans on the other hand, can sit down and get all the protein they need from an egg, or a steak. A majority of vitamins and minerals are consolidated into a singular ingredient (ex: eggs), all combined with a complete protein source. I like to think of it as the animal being the food processor, which then passes an almost ready made meal to us. It's rather interesting to think and study about all of the small moving parts that go into making food, and even greater to know that God made it all work that way! 

I hope you all enjoyed reading about double yolked eggs, feed, and a fraction of animal feed assimilation! Please let me know if you have any more questions or comments, I will be more than happy to answer them!

Thank you for your business, and Happy Thanksgiving!