An Arbroath woman thought she was cracking up when she broke an egg for her tea to find it had not one but an incredible three yolks.
Elspeth Fyfe made the shock discovery from an egg in one of her pet ducks which she had acquired to go with her hens during lockdown four months earlier.
Elspeth was so astounded by the find, she even took a photo of the strange occurrence to show her friends.
However, she was left speechless when she was informed just how rare her find was.
In fact, while the probability of a double yolk is estimated to be around one in every 1000 eggs, the odds of finding a triple yolk increase drastically.
One in 25 million chance
The British Egg Information Service (BEIS) estimate finding three yolks is an incredible one in every 25 million.
Elspeth said she was cooking bacon and eggs for her tea when she found the triple yolk.
“We’ve recently got a few ducks to go with our hens that we keep and this was the first week they had stated laying so I wanted to try an egg out,” Elspeth explained.
“I cracked the egg into the pan and couldn’t believe it.
“I’ve had the odd double yolk before but never three yolks from the one egg.
“I did take a photo but thought no more about it and ate the egg for my tea — and it tasted great.
“It was only later when I posted a photo on Facebook that the comment and jokes started flooding in.
Lucky omen
“I was told it was a one in 25 million chance of it happening, that it was a lucky omen and that I should put a lottery ticket on.
“I did eggs-actly that but didn’t win.
“Maybe I need to buy three tickets before I get lucky,” she joked.
The probability of double yolks appearing increases dramatically in young hens aged between 20 and 28 weeks old.
The chances increase from one in 1000 in older ages to one in 100 when birds this age are laying for the first time.
When one yolk reaches the correct size it will be released into the oviduct of the young bird from the ovary and then they will be wrapped up with egg white.
It’s more likely for yolks to be released in quick succession in young birds laying for the first time, similar to what happened with Elspeth’s 20-week-old ducks.
However the chances of finding a three yolk egg are incredibly rare.
Egg-loving nation
There’s no doubting that the UK is an egg-loving nation with most buying some every week.
According to the most recent UK egg industry data, over 13 billion eggs are consumed in 2019, which equates to around 200 eggs each.
And what does that look like? Well, laid together in a line it’s enough to stretch around the globe 17 times.