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Breakfast time took a turn for the un-eggs-pected for one pensioner when his usual boiled egg morning meal left him shell shocked.

Bill Jones from Tiverton went to cut off the top of his egg and discovered a second fully formed egg inside.

He explained: “I usually have boiled eggs three times a week thanks to a farmer out in East Anstey who brings them in for me. I always have two, and I don’t bother with omelettes, and I don’t bother with fried eggs except when I’m on holiday.

“I normally get double yolkers, so I assumed this to be one as well, but when I went to cut the top off, I saw there was a second egg inside. I couldn’t believe it.

What are the chances of finding a double yolk egg? According to experts at the British Egg Information Service, the chances of finding a single double-yolk egg are on average one in 1,000. For a carton of six double yolkers to appear the odds would extend to one in 1000,000,000,000,000,000 – or one in a quintillion. But the odds of getting 12 double yolks are one in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 - that is 36 zeros and is one in a undecillion. Pensioner shell-shocked at breakfast after discovering an egg inside his egg Double-yolk eggs are thought to be formed by younger hens whose laying cycle hasn’t formed a steady pattern. As the yolks move through the reproductive tract, they can bump in to each other and become connected together by egg white, which then creates a double-yolk egg. It is possible to get eggs with triple yolks - and even more! Pensioners in shock after cracking open 12 double yolk eggs from one box According to the Guinness World Records, the world’s largest chicken egg was nine inches in diameter and had five yolks. The greatest number of yolks found in a single chicken egg is said to be an incredible nine.

"I took a spoon inserted it into the double-yolked egg, and there was a perfect second egg all shelled up which I’m yet to crack. The two shells are different in colour from one another.

“I was flabbergasted. It’s like a buy one get one free offer.”

(Image: Lewis Clarke)

Mr Jones contacted his daughter in London and asked her to look into the phenomenon.

“We discovered it’s called counter-peristalsis,” he explained, “it’s a freak of nature.”

A counter-peristalsis contraction is when a second oocyte is released by the ovary before the first egg has completely travelled through the oviduct and been laid. The second oocyte then travels down the oviduct and has albumen and a shell deposited over it and first egg together.

Mr Jones has a boiled egg on Monday, Wednesday and Friday one week, and then on Monday, Thursday and Saturday the next depending on whether he visits the Halberton Lunch Club.

(Image: Spencer Watts)

He is now keeping the egg to show friends and family as well as Claire and John Warne from Merlin Eggs based in East Anstey who have been delivering eggs to Mr Jones’ home for more than a decade.

“13 years ago, I started helping Claire out as the farmers are getting a rough time thanks to the supermarkets.

“I said to her that I would go out to her farm and get my eggs. Then I had to go in and have my knee replaced, and so I said I wouldn’t be out to her for six weeks, she then brought the eggs in for me.

“She started bringing them in, and I suggested she could sell more eggs, so I asked all my friends if they liked eggs. So for 13 years, once a fortnight on a Monday, she would bring in 120 dozen eggs and put them in the garage. People would put the money in an honesty box and then have them.

“I’ve also taken the eggs to Halberton Lunch Club where I used to have 30 dozen on the first and third Thursday of the month and take them out there for all the pensioners.

"I never made a penny; it was my contribution against greedy supermarkets who screw the British farmer.”