The amazing and incredible egg

Eggs are laid by animals of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and fish, and have been eaten by humans for thousands of years. Today, we mostly eat chicken eggs, but duck and quail eggs are also commonly eaten. Fish eggs, also called roe, are consumed as caviar or in delicious sushi.

When it comes to chicken eggs, you may like to eat them boiled, fried (over easy or sunny side up), scrambled, in an omlette, poached, or as a frittata. 

For detailed nutritional information about eggs click here.

The creative folks at NPR's Skunk Bear tried to answer one scientific question about eggs: how do chicks in the egg get oxygen? Watch and learn.

Here are some other interesting facts about eggs:

Mass production of chicken eggs is a global industry. In 2009, an estimated 62.1 million metric tons of eggs were produced worldwide from a total laying flock of approximately 6.4 billion hens!

The largest bird's egg belongs to the ostrich and they are enormous: on average they are 15 centimetres (5.9 in) long, 13 centimetres (5.1 in) wide, and weigh 1.4 kilograms (3.1 lb).

The vervain hummingbird, the second smallest bird species, is found in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica. It lays the smallest eggs of any bird with an average length of 1 cm (0.39 in) and weight of 0.375 g.

Originally sold as street food in the Philippines, balut is special egg dish. It is a developing bird embryo (usually a duck) that is boiled and eaten from the shell. Often served with beer, balut is popular in Southeast Asian countries. Yumm!

Century eggs refer to special Chinese preparation where chicken/quail/duck eggs are preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quick lime and rice hulls for weeks or months before being consumed.

Click here to see another web page with more information about eggs.

Lastly, thinking about eggs made me think of the song Egg Man by the rap group The Beastie Boys, from their classic 1989 album Paul's Boutique. Enjoy.