

Egg hatching INSIDE of another egg? Twins?

Discussion in 'Incubating & Hatching Eggs' started by PalmRoyal, Sep 6, 2014.

  1. PalmRoyal

    PalmRoyal Chirping

    Apr 28, 2013
    Lima, OH
    I went out to my barn to check on the muscovies that are hatching (I allow my animals to do natural incubation) and gather up the eggshells. Low and behold, I found an egg inside of another newly hatched duckling's egg. So I pulled the inner egg out and helped it get a good start by taking the cap off for it (it looked like it had been struggling) and set it back under the mom. This was definably an odd thing to happen.
    How common are instances like this? I've read about twins where there is two babies in a single egg, but an egg inside of another egg?
    This is not the only thing weird to happen with my eggs this year. I had a turkey egg that had formed two membranes on the inside of the egg (unfortunately I could not get to it in time and it had died).

  2. darkbluespace

    darkbluespace Songster

    Jun 13, 2014
    Portland Oregon
    I would bet that the egg just rolled into another shell of a chick that had already hatched.... they do that all the time! It is good to notice it because it can make it extra hard for the egg to hatch.

    When there are twins... they are generally in one shell. It is possible for an egg with shell to be inside another egg, but that is very rare and the inner egg usually doesn't even have a yolk.
    1 person likes this.
  3. donrae

    donrae Hopelessly Addicted Premium Member

    Jun 18, 2010
    Southern Oregon
    I've had an intact egg roll into the half or halves of an already hatched egg a couple times. They can get pretty suctioned in there, too! Sounds like what happened here. Just mechanics, nothing weird with the eggs. If one egg had formed inside another inside the hen, and somehow the chick did manage to develop, the outer shell wouldn't break first.
  4. Violetsrblu

    Violetsrblu Chirping

    Jul 24, 2013
    Lakeland, TN
    Video of a huge chicken egg that had another egg in it [​IMG]:

  5. PalmRoyal

    PalmRoyal Chirping

    Apr 28, 2013
    Lima, OH
    Thanks for all of the replies! I thought it was very odd and peculiar that there was a second egg inside the other egg, but apparently it just fell in. Silly me! [​IMG]
  6. Shadow920

    Shadow920 Chirping

    Sep 16, 2015
    does anyone know if an actual egg within an egg can hatch?
  7. junebuggena

    junebuggena Crowing

    Apr 17, 2015
    Long Beach, WA
    No. Not enough room for a healthy chick to develop.

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