OK, we have 2 Pekin females, 1 black with some white female duck, 1 barred rock hen, 3 RIR hens, and 3 aracuna hens. (I haven't mentioned the roosters).
WE're just now getting the brown eggs (looks lke the RIR's, as they are always sitting there in the box). WE ahve been, for about 3 weeks now (maybe 4), getting white eggs, and theya re always on the ground--some are small like the brown ones. They don't look tinted very much at all (aracunas?). Then there are the giant size eggs we get 4x week. Pekin duck eggs? THat's what I think--but every single one has been a double yolker (tasty, by the way!). DO certain breeds lay double yolkers? COuld it be one of then aracunas? I have no clue how often they show up normally (I just know I rarely get them from the store--I imagine because they don't fit that nice standard we see in the store).
Speaking of that, it's nice to see the other than the "standard" egg I see in the store--makes every morning interesting :)
ALso, will double yolk hatch twins? How long can they generally be kept in the fridge, and still be set on/incubated later? Most of the eggs look fertilized (spot of blood on the yolk on almost all the eggs). WE're eating most of them, but wouldn't mind taking a hand at trying to hatch some before it gets too cold here (already 40F at night).

-- Brendan K Callahan (Grinnell, IA) (sleeping@iowatelecom.net), September 26, 2001

Answers

Double yoke eggs are generally from older hens (two plus). Just a slight malfunction of the ovary duct. A blood (or white spot) around a yoke has nothing to do with mating. A blood spot is simply another slight malfunction of the overy duct attachment. The white spots, usually two, are the attachment points which helped keep the yoke centered in the egg.

I had an Aunt who use to insist the white spots were sperm deposits. Heck, probably 99% of the eggs you buy are from hens who have never seen a rooster.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 26, 2001.

None of your hens should be producing white eggs, although auracana eggs can be pretty pale. As for double yolk eggs, some hens just tend to lay fewer, bigger eggs. Some consistently lay double-yolked eggs. From what I understand, it would be very unusual to hatch live chicks from a double-yolk egg. You can't chill eggs beyond a certain point and still hatch them. I don't have my chicken books handy or I'd look up the temperature for you, but I think it's right around room temperature (65-75 degrees). You can keep them at optimum temperature for, I think, up to two weeks before incubating them. Of course, viability decreases with time. Good luck with your chickens!

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), September 26, 2001.

You can tell duck eggs from chicken eggs quite easily. Duck eggs have a perfectly smooth shell, almost slick feeling, while chicken eggs have a subtle texture to the shell. Once open, ducks eggs have a smaller proportion of the white, which is almost clear, whereas chicken egg white is actually yellowish until cooked. Hope this helps you know what you're eating! Kathie

-- Kathie in Western Washington (twinrosefarm@centurytel.net), September 26, 2001.

My hens periodically lay double yolks. The reason these eggs don't hatch (the birds usually die in the shell) is due to the shell not stretching to accommodate the growth of the two birds.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), September 26, 2001.

The summer of 2000 was the first batch of layers that I aquired. They first started laying about the first of Oct. and their eggs were small (some really small). After a few weeks they started getting bigger, more like what you see in the stores. Soon after that they started having double yolked eggs. It seemed like that all through the winter for every dozen eggs, I would have two or three double yolked eggs in the batch. Come spring, early summer they quite giving me double yolks. But some of my eggs are very large now. You fry two eggs up and it almost cover your whole dinner plate. Huge! But I'm hoping that when they get older they will give me some more double yolked eggs once again.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), September 27, 2001.

I have only seen one case of a double yolked egg hatching twins. It was covered in a cage bird publication and was a canary egg. 4 eggs in nest, 5 babies on hatching. It is more likely to be reported by breeders of exotic/cage birds than with chickens, because most people don't count their chicken's eggs very closely. If they were hatching twins, likely you would not know it, might see two very tiny chicks (that might not survive) and not connect the event to twinned yolks.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), September 27, 2001.

this is not an answer it is a question that kind of goes to this page about the canaries. I have two canaries and the female has 4 eggs and every day the eggs are bigger. Really bigger and darker in color. does this mean they are double yoked? thanks for all your help. If you can please email me back if you can. tbedwell05@hotmail.com

-- traven levi bedwell (tbedwell05@hotmail.com), March 06, 2002.