Giant chicken egg reveals surprise for Darien family
When Darien resident Brent Wofsey and his family moved into their home in 2012, just before Superstorm Sandy, he was happy to finally have the space to raise the chickens he’d always wanted.
“We finally had a yard with enough space and enough privacy,” Wofsey said.
Wofsey’s wife, Erika, is a nurse at a doctor’s office in Greenwich, and their daughter Kaitlyn, 10, is a fourth grader at Tokeneke School.
“One of Erika’s coworkers had chickens, and offered to give us a few of hers that were already laying eggs,” Wofsey said.
The family really wanted to raise chicks, but knew that took more care and attention, which was a challenge with work and school.
“Then came the spring of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. The kids were remote learning, and, my job switched to working full time from home,” Wofsey said.
The family spotted some Isa Brown chicks for sale on a routine trip to buy feed for their chickens and brought them home.
“We now have a happy family of eight chickens. I let them all to free range during the day, and then put them back in the coop for the night time,” Wofsey said.
Recently, Wofsey and his family were bowled over by the size of one of the eggs laid by the chickens. This was followed by two more. The egg weighed in at 195 grams (or just under half a pound.)
The Guinness Book of World Records recorded the heaviest egg to have been laid by a hen is one of 454 grams (16 ounces), with a double yolk and double shell, laid by a White Leghorn at Vineland, New Jersey, on Feb. 25, 1956.
While Wofsey said that one of his chickens tends to lay larger eggs, its been “nothing close to this monstrosity of an egg.” They also aren’t sure which chicken specifically laid the egg. His original four chickens laid different color eggs which were easier to identify but now the new chicks lay all the same color.
The chickens eat normal chicken feed and whatever leftover scraps they have from the day. They also love when Wofsey spoonfeeds them peanut butter.
Wilton’s Cannon Grange, which holds an annual old-fashioned agricultural fair which offers blue ribbons in various categories such as baking, animals and vegetables, doesn’t have a record for largest egg, according to Grange board member Michele Clark.
The Grange holds a video-log called “Chicken Tenders” about raising chickens and it is co-hosted by Bil Mikulewicz. He said the largest egg his chickens has laid was 7.75 ounces which equates to approximately 219 grams.
“It was a double yolk and it occasionally occurs,” Mikulewicz said.
Upon cracking the egg, Wofsey’s daughter Kaitlyn was stunned to find both a traditional yolk and white — as well as a fully formed normal-sized chicken egg. That egg cracked as a normal egg.
According to backyard poultry.iamcountryside .com, the egg within an egg is the result of a process called a counter-peristalsis contraction. The contraction results in the egg reversing course and then being included in the formation of the new egg around it, resulting in a very large double egg.
Mike Pennington-Martel of the Connecticut Poultry Association says the egg inside the egg “happens more often than you would think and mainly with new egg layers.
“Instead of your standard double yolk, another actual egg forms inside, so you get two eggs in one basically,” he said.
“I’ve actually heard of three eggs in one, a “fairy” egg, a very small egg, then a huge outside egg. There are a lot of videos with people opening up a huge egg to see if it’s a double or triple yolk, but then to their surprise it’s an egg within an egg,” Pennington-Martel said.
Many residents of Darien have found joy in raising animals and in particular, chickens over the last year. Susan Daly, who runs Darien Chick Talk, a Facebook group about raising chickens specifically in Darien, said her membership is now at 136, which is double the size it was pre-pandemic. Daly said she had personally not experienced the egg inside an egg phenomenon.