Egg Fun Facts

Seahorses are one of the only animals where the male gets pregnant. The female deposits eggs into the male's brood pouch, where he fertilizes and carries them for 2-4 weeks.

Source: Journal of Fish Biology

The largest clutch size of any bird belongs to the grey partridge, which can lay up to 22 eggs in a single nest.

Source: British Trust for Ornithology

In 2012, a hen in Sri Lanka gave birth to a live chick without laying an egg first. The egg had hatched inside the mother's body. Veterinarians confirmed the chick was healthy.

Source: BBC News, March 2012

Double-yolk eggs occur in about 1 in every 1,000 eggs. They're most common in young hens whose reproductive systems haven't fully synchronized yet.

Source: University of Illinois Extension

There's a superstition in parts of England that if you eat an egg and don't crush the shell afterward, a witch will use it as a boat.

Source: A Dictionary of English Folklore (Oxford University Press)

In the 17th century, 'egg flips' — drinks made from beaten eggs, sugar, and ale or spirits — were popular in English taverns. The modern eggnog descends from this tradition.

Source: The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink

Some chickens lay eggs with wrinkled, bumpy, or oddly textured shells. These 'body-checked' eggs are safe to eat — the bumps are just extra calcium deposits.

Source: Poultry Science Association

Astronauts on the International Space Station eat freeze-dried scrambled eggs reconstituted with hot water. NASA has been perfecting space eggs since the Gemini program in the 1960s.

Source: NASA Johnson Space Center — Space Food Systems Laboratory

In 2008, a British supermarket sold an egg with a perfectly round shape (no pointed end). The odds were estimated at 1 in a billion.

Source: The Daily Telegraph, 2008

Egg-shaped objects have been found in ancient Roman tombs, placed there as symbols of rebirth and the afterlife.

Source: Cambridge Archaeological Journal

The 'egg drop' — the physics challenge where you engineer protection for an egg dropped from a height — has been a standard STEM education exercise since the 1950s.

Source: National Science Teaching Association