X

Chicken lays giant mutant egg with another egg inside

Forget unboxing videos. An egg-opening video caught the internet's attention with a bizarre secret.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser

Easter came early for a chicken-raising family this year. Instead of a chocolate candy inside an egg, they got a Russian nesting doll-style surprise.

YouTube user SNO Multimedia posted a fascinating video over the weekend showing a giant mutant chicken egg. The lumpy-looking creation dwarfs a normal egg. When cracked open, the egg reveals a yolk and another fully formed egg inside. That smaller egg also contains a regular yolk and white.

Though the egg-inside-of-an-egg phenomenon is rare, it does happen. It's due to a counter-peristalsis contraction, which happens when an egg is pushed back up into the chicken's reproductive system and becomes embedded in another newly forming egg. It's exactly as strange as it sounds.

SNO Multimedia's video description is an instant classic: "This gigantic egg had a yolk and another egg inside. I can't believe it didn't kill my hen. No one wanted to eat it, so my wife made a hair conditioner with it." At least the hen's monumental effort didn't go to waste.

These far-out animals fascinate and amuse scientists

See all photos