The hen's egg: Density of egg shell and egg contents

Synopsis

One hundred eggs were used, from hens of seven widely differing strains: two commercial brown‐egg hybrids (one British, one American), two commercial white‐egg hybrids (one British, one Canadian), one broiler strain, one highly inbred strain of laboratory White Leghorns and one laboratory strain of Brown Leghorns. The volume occupied by the shell of each egg was estimated from its surface area—itself estimated by means of a three‐parameter model (Carter, 1968)— and its mean thickness, measured with an anvil micrometer. The volume occupied by the egg contents was estimated by subtracting the shell volume from the egg volume, which was also estimated by means of the three‐parameter model. Mean overall shell density (counting as “shell” all mineral matter and spaces between the outer surface of the mineral shell and a surface through the tips of the mammillae) was estimated, by regressing shell weight on shell volume, to be 2.241 ±0.004 g./cm.³; covariance analysis showed that the strains were homogeneous in this respect. Mean incremental shell density (i.e. the density of shell distal to the mammillary region) was estimated, by regressing shell weight per unit surface area on shell thickness, to be 2.386±0.004 g./cm.³; the strains were homogeneous in this respect too. The mean depth of the intermammillary spaces was estimated to be 19.9 μ. All the residual deviation from the common regression line can be attributed to measurement error. The estimated density of incremental shell is lower than that of calcite; the packing fraction of the crystals in the shell aggregate and/or the atoms in the crystals was estimated to be 92.8 per cent. The density of the egg contents (at the temperature of the bird) was estimated by regressing weight of contents on volume of contents; covariance analysis revealed significant differences between strains, one of the brown‐egg hybrids having the highest density of egg contents, 1.045 g/cm.³, and the laboratory Brown Leghorns the lowest, 1.033; both commercial white‐egg hybrid strains gave a value of 1.040 g./cm.³.