Woman Found Large Egg Under Hen with Another Egg Inside: Fact Check

Story: 

Woman Found Strangely Large Egg Under Hen, Having Another Egg Inside

Other Versions

1. Woman Finds an Egg Inside a Giant Egg

2. A woman opened an enormous hen’s egg – and found a Second one inside

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Fact Check:

An interesting story doing rounds online, also shared on social media sites, claims that a woman found a strangely large egg under her hen, and when she opened it she was surprised to discover another second egg inside. The incident is a fact; the story also carries a video showing the hen, the woman and the strange egg.

Maria Glória de Souza, a 64-year-old woman from central Brazil collected the enormous egg weighing just over six ounces from one of her chickens in the backyard of her house. When she cracked open the strangely large egg to find out what’s inside, Maria discovered another normal sized egg inside the egg that was about triple the size of a normal egg. Maria, who has been raising chickens for over 20 years, was surprised at the finding and said she never saw anything like that.

Egg Inside Egg Not Uncommon

Such a discovery of a second egg inside a hen’s egg has not happened for the first time; there have been some such reported cases. In late 2015 when Jane Keast cracked open an egg for dinner, she was surprised to find another whole egg inside it. The egg was rather large, the size of two-pence piece, and the inner egg was much smaller and perfectly round. Jane’s husband Chris suspected the large egg might have a double yolk inside that they come across sometimes. Note, it’s not that egg inside egg is only seen in large size eggs. In late 2013 reddit user rumperpumper83 shared an “eggceptional” picture of a sliced boiled egg showing another completely tiny egg embedded inside the white (the second picture below). It’s also interesting to note that some experts have discovered scholarly mentions of “eggs within eggs” dating as far back as 1250 AD.

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How a Second Egg is Formed Inside

The formation of second egg inside a hen’s egg is attributed to a phenomenon called counter-peristalsis contraction. According to Countryside Network website countrysidenetwork.com, a hen normally releases an egg cell every 16-26 hours. It travels through the oviduct as it forms into a full egg with the shell-covering. But when the next egg cell is released too early, the first one gets sucked back up by a contraction and is forced to contain inside the second egg cell formation that goes down the oviduct, and is laid later. The same is explained in the second video of Discovery Channel. It starts showing another such instance of egg inside another egg, as the people who witness it shout in amazement. It is believed, the phenomenon of counter-peristalsis contraction producing egg inside egg typically occurs if the hen receives a shock when making an egg.

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Hoax or Fact:

Fact.

References:

A couple’s hen has laid an egg within an egg and it’s messing with out minds
Tiny Eggs Can Exist Inside Other Eggs