'My poor chicken': Manitoba hen's 'ginormous' egg weighs more than twice as much as average | CBC News (2024)

Manitoba

Manitoba farmer Ashely Bartel woke up to an eggs-quisite surprise Thursday morning — a 202-gram egg laid by her hen, Henrietta, that an industry association spokesperson says is "definitely the biggest egg we've ever heard of here."

Henrietta the hen's 202-gram egg 'definitely the biggest ... we've ever heard of here': Manitoba Egg Farmers

'My poor chicken': Manitoba hen's 'ginormous' egg weighs more than twice as much as average | CBC News (1)

Rachel Ferstl · CBC News

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'My poor chicken': Manitoba hen's 'ginormous' egg weighs more than twice as much as average | CBC News (2)

Manitoba farmer Ashely Bartel woke up to an eggs-quisite surprise Thursday morning.

Her hen Henriettamay have made a bit of Manitoba egg-laying history,after the chicken laid a massive egg at Bartel's farmyard just southeast of Oakbank.

It weighed 202 grams — more than double the weight of the average extra-large egg.

"When I got close I could see this ginormous egg on the ground. And my first thought was, 'Oh my goodness, this is such a huge egg.'

"And second thought was, 'my poor chicken,'" Bartel told CBC on Friday.

It's something Bartel has never seen before.

While Henrietta— a lavender Maran whoweighs about seven pounds herself—oftenlays large eggs that are typically about 75 grams,this one coveredBartel's entire palm and was about the size of a small mango, she said.

"It's just absolutely incredible," Bartel said.

'My poor chicken': Manitoba hen's 'ginormous' egg weighs more than twice as much as average | CBC News (3)

Claire McCaffrey, a communications specialist for the industry association Manitoba Egg Farmers, said an egg that big was a surprise to her, too.

"It's definitely the biggest egg we've ever heard of here," she said.

There have been a couple of other egg-ceptionallylargechicken eggs in Canada recently, although neither has measured up to Henrietta's.

  • Leamington, Ont., farmers crack the mystery of the giant egg
  • PhotosChicken in Echo Bay, Ont. lays massive 180 gram egg

Earlier this year, farmers in Leamington, Ont., found an egg nearly the size of an orange, weighing 175 grams.

Another egg laid in 2017 in Echo Bay, Ont., weighed 180 grams.

The heaviest chicken egg in the world,according to Guinness World Records,was laid in New Jersey in 1956, weighing 454 grams.

Scrambled eggs, anyone?

The size of an egg usually depends on the age of the hen, McCaffrey said.

Larger eggs, which tend to have two yolks instead of one, are typically laid at the beginning or end of a hen's reproductive life, when the hen goes through a lot of hormonal changes.

Henrietta is on the younger side, at just over two years old. Her egg had two yolks — one inside the first shell and another inside a separate egg within the first shell.

WATCH | See what's inside Henrietta's giant egg:

'My poor chicken': Manitoba hen's 'ginormous' egg weighs more than twice as much as average | CBC News (4)

'My poor chicken': Henrietta the hen recovering after laying 'ginormous' egg

12 months ago

Duration 1:59

Ashley Bartel couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the size of the egg her hen Henrietta laid on Thursday. It tipped the scales at a massive 202 grams, almost three times the weight of a normal jumbo egg.

"The way that a chicken actually lays their egg is that they always have several eggs on the go," McCaffrey said.

"Maybe the one egg didn't quite form properly but did have a shell on it, and then the other egg started to form around it."

While McCaffrey said eggs with another inside are not normally as big as the one Henrietta laid, many Manitoba chickens have laid those.

'My poor chicken': Manitoba hen's 'ginormous' egg weighs more than twice as much as average | CBC News (5)

But given just how big Henrietta's two-for-one egg was, McCaffrey said it's unlikely she'll lay another one that size.

And thatmight be for the best — Bartel said Henrietta seemed a bit sore Thursday, but was back to her usual self the next day.

"She gets all the credit, because she's the one that had to endure that," Bartel said.

As for the fate of the egg, Bartel said she'll turn it into a meal, since the chicks wouldn't belikely to survive if she tried to incubate them.

"Scrambled eggs sounds just fine with me."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

'My poor chicken': Manitoba hen's 'ginormous' egg weighs more than twice as much as average | CBC News (6)

Rachel Ferstl

Former CBC reporter

Rachel Ferstl previously reported for CBC Manitoba. She graduated from Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program and has a bachelor of arts in communications from the University of Winnipeg. She was the 2023 recipient of the Eric and Jack Wells Excellence in Journalism Award and the Dawna Friesen Global News Award for Journalism.

    With files from Chloe Friesen

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    'My poor chicken': Manitoba hen's 'ginormous' egg weighs more than twice as much as average | CBC News (2024)
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