Twin Chicks Born At Bala Cynwyd Middle School

BALA CYNWYD, PA — Students in the Bala Cynwyd Middle School Communique (CMK) program received quite a surprise while studying embryology in genetics. As part of their studies, the students received 24 chick eggs. The eggs were expected to hatch and produce – as a best result – 24 chicks on Monday, January 14.

Instead, the eggs produced 30 chicks. The students researched this surprising phenomenon.

"This is beyond rare, for the most likely explanation would be six twins in a batch of 24, which (as two of our math teachers calculated) is a one in a quintillion chance," student Danielle Gesser Sapir wrote. "Our research has shown the probability of having a double yolk is rare, and having two chicks born from the same egg is even rarer."

The Penn State Extension agreed with Sapir, saying when two chicks hatch from the same egg, the egg usually has two yolks.

"Usually, one embryo out-competes the other and only one chick survives to hatch, according to the extension. "Many time both embryos die before hatch.”

"In one study of more than 1100 chicken eggs, double yolks were found only three times – that is, in less than one-third of one percent," according to Laura Erickson, known as the “Dr. Ruth of Ornithology."" In another, larger study, 2.8 percent of chicken eggs were double-yolked. Very few double-yolked eggs hatch."

"When twin chicks are born, they usually need help such as a human cracking the egg shell for them," Sapir said. "Since all the chicks looked perfectly healthy when we came in on Monday and since none (as far as we’re concerned) had aid at birth, this is a confusing event."

Though the students don’t yet have an explanation for the rare event, they are enjoying the fluffy new chicks.

Image via Lower Merion School District