Seeing double

Imagine David Humphrey’s surprise when he collected eggs last week and found a whopper.

The three-and-a-half-inch by two-inch elliptical egg was the largest he’s ever found. Humphrey’s granddaughter encouraged her grandfather to find out how many yolks were in it.

“My granddaughter wanted to see if it was a double yolk or what, but I wanted to save the egg,” Humphrey said.

“So, I started chipping at the end. I punched a hole in each end. The yolk would come to the bend but wouldn’t come out,” he said.

“Finally, I looked and there wasanother egg in there,” he said.

With young hens, Humphrey said, he’s had eggs be odd sizes, either really small or as large as a goose egg, but he’s never seen one this big or doubled.

“I get new ones every year and get rid of the old ones. They lay better the first year.”

Humphrey said he has been keeping laying hens about five years and has about a dozen, although he had 30 for a while. He and his wife use the eggs, give some to their grown children and sell others through Webb Feed and Seed.

“I never dreamed it would be like this ... if I had known that, I would have made a smaller hole,” Humphrey said.

News, Pages 1 on 11/09/2011