I’m shell-shocked!
Farmer’s wife cracks open giant egg and reveals a four-yolker
WITH odds of more than a thousand to one, the chances of cracking an egg to find a double-yolker inside are rather remote.
So it’s no wonder a farmer’s wife was a little stunned when she cracked one open and found four yolks inside.
Emma, 49, and Steve Brooks, 57, run Castel Farm Eggs in Guernsey and had never seen a four-yolker.
Mr Brooks has worked in the egg industry all his life, and the pair believe the odds of finding one to be 11billion to one – so were amazed when it happened this week.
Mrs Brooks said: ‘It’s one of the perks of the job that a lot of the larger eggs can’t fit into our cartons for selling at supermarkets so we get to keep them.
‘We had family over and were saving the unusually large egg to have but didn’t get around to using it.’
She added: ‘So I was cooking my husband ham, egg and chips for dinner on Monday and thought we’d use it. When I cracked it and told him it had four yolks inside he jumped up from the table and couldn’t believe it.
‘We have had double yolks, triple yolks and even an egg inside another egg before, but never have we had an egg with four yolks.
‘Straight away my husband was on Google seeing how rare it is.’ The probability of finding a multiyolk egg is estimated by the British Egg Information Service at one in 1,000, but finding an egg that contains four yolks is unheard of.
Multiple-yolk eggs are often produced by younger animals, which is where Mrs Brooks believes the egg came from. She said: ‘We have some new young chickens in, and it’s often the younger or older ones that create the larger eggs. Unfortunately we can’t say exactly which one laid it, to thank her.’
Mr Brooks added: ‘I’ve worked in the egg trade all my life and I’ve never seen a four.
‘I’ve seen lots of threes, we’ve had eggs within eggs, but I’ve never seen a four – it was incredible.’ Castel Farm Eggs has 16,000 free range hens that lay around 14,000 eggs a day.