A HUNGRY pensioner made an eggs-tremely rare discovery when each of the dozen eggs he bought had a double yolk... at odds of 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000-1.

Colin Hawkins bought the box of eggs as part of a weekly shop from Sainsbury’s in Stanway as he prepared for a visit from his sister and niece who were on holiday from Canada.

It was when they started to make breakfast one morning Mr Hawkins’ un-egg-spected discovery began.

The 75-year-old retiree said he was shellshocked at what had happened. He said: “I couldn’t believe it.

“My sister and my niece were over visiting from Canada.

“I broke the first three open and they were all double yolk.”

Mr Hawkins resisted the temptation to crack open each of the dozen eggs there and then and has used them as and when he fancied throughout the course of the next week.

After enjoying a double-yolked fry up for breakfast on Tuesday, he was walking on egg shells until the next day for the reveal.

Gazette:

But Mr Hawkins was hoping for an egg-stra surprise was in store for the for the final one.

He said: “The last one was a really big egg. I put it on Facebook and I got a message from Australia from someone saying they had once found a triple yolk egg and I was hoping it might be that.

“But it was only a double and it completed the dozen.”

Double yolks are caused by rapid ovulation in young hens.

It means two yolks are released quickly into the chicken’s oviduct and into the same shell.

Yolks are usually released an hour apart but changes to the hen’s hormones or an over active ovary can cause the double yolks.

Young hens usually produce more double yolks than older birds, but there are certain breeds who are known to be more active.

The odds of finding a double yolk in a standard carton of large eggs - like the one Mr Hawkins purchased - is put at1,000-1.

But the odds of getting another in the same packet narrows to roughly 100-1 for each subsequent egg.

For them all to be double yolks is a quinvigintillion to one - or one with 25 zeroes.

Mr Hawkins said he had spoken to the supermarket giant in a bid to find out how rare the egg-ccurrence was.

He added: “The odds seem unbelievable.

“I bought them from Sainsbury’s in Stanway.

“I contacted them to see if it was a regular occurrence and they had never heard of it.

“I just took them as I needed them but it was incredible that it happened each time.

“They are going to have a chat with their suppliers about it.”

Double yolks are often seen as a sign of good luck - or that somebody in the family is soon going to get pregnant with twins.

However, Norse mythology also suggests double yolks are a symbol of an upcoming death.

The most eggs ever found in one single egg shell is nine, while dwarf eggs which do not have any yolks whatsoever are becoming more and more popular.