PIP

9 September 2026

Fun facts about the egg itself

1. Eggs are good for your eyes - they contain lutein, which helps prevent cataracts and muscle degeneration.
2. An eggshell can have as many as 17,000 pores.
3. Egg shell and yolk colour vary depending on what the ladies eat.
4. Breed determines eggshell colour - brown hens lay brown eggs, white hens lay white eggs.
5. Egg yolks are one of the few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D.
6. Brown eggs are more expensive because the hens that lay them are larger and need more feed.
7. Duck eggs are higher in fat and can be better for baking.
8. Eggs are rich in choline, which promotes normal cell activity.

Fun facts about telling eggs apart

9. To tell a raw egg from a hard-cooked one, spin it - cooked eggs spin easily, raw eggs wobble.
10. If you drop an egg on the floor, sprinkle it heavily with salt for easy clean-up.
11. As hens age, their eggs become larger.
12. Kiwis (the bird) lay the largest eggs relative to body size of any bird species.

Fun facts about hens and laying

13. An average hen lays 300-325 eggs per year.
14. It takes a chicken 24-26 hours to produce an egg.
15. A hen turns her egg nearly 50 times a day to stop the yolk sticking to the side.

Fun facts and records

16. The fastest omelette maker in the world made 427 two-egg omelettes in 30 minutes.
17. The word "yolk" derives from an Old English word for "yellow" - hence egg white and egg yellow.
18. Harriet, a hen from the UK, laid the world's largest egg in 2010 - 9.1 inches in diameter.
19. We eat chicken eggs rather than duck or turkey eggs mainly because chickens lay more, need less nesting space, and don't have the strong mothering/defensive instincts of ducks and turkeys.

Bet you didn't know all of that about something you crack open most mornings!