Double-yolk egg
A double-yolk egg forms when a hen releases two yolks so close together that one shell wraps both. It is a bonus in the pan and a small lesson about two good things squeezed into one space.
What it may mean
A double yolk looks like a bonus, two eggs for the price of one, and most cooks call someone over to see it. Inside the hen it was a small traffic jam: two yolks released so close together that a single shell formed around both. On a farm the result is less cheerful, because such an egg seldom hatches; there is not room or air enough for two chicks. Old readings were split as well. One 1903 list took it as a death omen for the family, while in the American South such eggs were blamed on a hen that crowed. Two good things packed into one container often crowd each other in the same way: two big projects in one quarter, two new commitments in one tight week, two people sharing one job title. Each would grow well alone. In the pan, the second yolk is just breakfast.
Depending on how you saw it
Two yolks in a cake batter
A recipe that calls for three eggs gets a richer batter when one of them has two yolks, and most cakes forgive it. A custard, built on exact proportions, may not. Where is a little extra welcome for you, and where does it throw off the balance?
A whole carton of double yolks
Some farms sell cartons of double-yolked eggs, picked out by shining a light through each shell, and they often cost more than a plain dozen. Bakers and brunch lovers buy them anyway. What do you happily pay a little extra for that others would call a gimmick?
A tiny egg with no yolk at all
Young layers sometimes produce the opposite oddity, a small egg with no yolk; old Southern farm lore called both kinds a rooster's egg and blamed a crowing hen. Both come from a laying rhythm that has not settled, and both fade as the bird matures. When something you rely on runs uneven, do you wait for it to settle or try to fix it at once?
Why it happens in nature
A double yolk forms when two yolks are released into a hen's oviduct so close together that one shell forms around both. It happens most often in young hens that have only just begun to lay. Double-yolked eggs seldom hatch without human help, and egg graders spot them by candling, shining a bright light through the shell.
What folk beliefs say
U.S. South (African American lore)
A 1903 account of African American farm lore in the South says that eggs with double yolks or with no yolk were called "roosters' eggs" and blamed on a crowing hen, and when one turned up the whole flock was watched until the culprit was found.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 877. View the page
To reflect on
What two good things are you trying to fit into one space that might each need their own?