British Columbia·Video

What came first, the egg or the egg? Campbell River farmer uncovers henhouse mystery

Katie Denne wasn't sure what she had when she discovered a a giant egg in her Campbell River henhouse

'We cracked the big egg ... and a whole new egg came out!'

Rare egg-in-egg discovered in Campbell River

8 years ago
Duration 0:45
Katie Denne wasn't quite sure what was going on with the giant egg she found in her hen house until she cracked it open.

The good news is the hen survived.

The better news is that the mystery surrounding the monster egg Katie Denne found in her Campbell River henhouse Tuesday morning has been solved.

Turns out it was actually two eggs in one  — a fully formed egg containing another fully formed egg.

"It was the size of my hand. It was ridiculous," said Denne, noting that she had to be careful handling the giant egg because the outermost shell was "oddly super fragile." 

The Denne family cracked the egg-in-egg mystery using a frying pan. (Katie Denne)

She admits she wasn't quite sure what she had at first.

"Double yolk eggs are common and we've had a triple yolker once. But this looked like it was from a dinosaur," she said.

It was only by cooking the egg — with husband Kyle taking video — that the case was finally cracked. 

"We were thinking there would be four yolks in it or something crazy," she said. "We cracked the big egg and the yolk came out — a smushy yolk — with the white. And then a whole new egg came out!"

Earlier this month a hobby farmer in Ontario also discovered a rare egg-in-egg.

He had his egg X-rayed.

An X-ray of the Ontario chicken egg revealed another complete egg inside. (Provided)

Denne's family has kept chickens at their Holly Hills farm for years collecting five dozen eggs a day from 60 hens. This is the first time they've come across an egg-in-egg.

According to Denne's six-year-old daughter, Cora, the egg-in-egg was "really yummy."