Australian Farmer Cracks Open Giant Chicken Egg—Only to Find Another Egg Inside

Believe me, this egg lives up to the hype.

Twitter was stunned by just how BIG the egg was!

Though exceptionally rare, a chicken laying a gigantic egg which contains a second, normal-sized egg isn't actually unprecedented. There's even a name for how it happens! These giant eggs are caused by a counter-peristalsis contraction.

To understand the counter-peristalsis contraction, you need to know the basics of how a chicken makes an egg (as if we all didn't already know). Here's how it goes: every 18-26 hours, a hen releases an oocyte from her ovaries. This will become the yolk of the egg! The oocyte will slowly travel down the hen's oviduct, having layers of egg added onto it every step of the way, until it finally reaches the "vent" and the chicken lays the egg. Simple, right?

Well, sometimes things get a little messed up. Very occasionally, the hen will release a second oocyte before the first one has made it all the way out of the oviduct. If a second yolk enters the system while another oocyte is having its shell created in the eggshell gland, the hen's body sometimes freaks out a bit and experiences a contraction - the counter-peristalsis contraction. This forces the original egg (the one that's almost done) back up into the chicken's oviduct, where it basically experiences the entire process a second time, alongside the second yolk.

The new egg is so much bigger because, simply put, the chicken has to build a shell around their first egg too.

The photo also inspired some truly regrettable puns.

The egg also became a perfect metaphor for a universal Twitter pet-peeve:

It's an egg within an egg!

Though most are amusing by the odd situation, others are reacting with fear and confusion. Who can blame them? It's possible the real shock still hasn't been discovered.

For more giant-egg related news, just head to the home of all strange happenings: Australia!

H/T - Twitter, The Sun, Countryside Daily