A Baker's Dozen Facts About Eggs

1 EGGS ARE perhaps the most vital life force. More than 99 per cent of animal species reproduce via oviparity (egg laying), with mammals being the notable outliers. And even then, there are two striking exceptions: the echidna (spiny anteater) and the platypus, the only mammals that lay eggs.

- Courtney Shea

2 AT BIRTH, human ovaries come equipped with a lifetime supply of eggs already intact—between one and two million oocytes (eggs). By puberty, that number shrinks to around 400,000 and continues to decrease with age. With women waiting longer to have children (the average age for first-time mothers in Canada, for example, is 29), egg freezing is on the rise. In the United States, it rose 39 per cent between 2019 and 2021.

3 "WHICH CAME first, the chicken or the egg?" Science settles this debate once and for all! Chickens are a domesticated version of the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus), a tropical bird still common in Asia. By selectively breeding the tamest of the birds, humans created a whole new species approximately 8,000 years ago. So, the first-ever chicken (Gallus domesticus) came from the egg of its wild ancestor.

4 DECORATING EGGS is an age-old tradition: Archaeologists discovered gold- and silver-decorated eggs in the ancient tombs of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern elites. But the association with Easter began with the Ukrainian practice of pysanky. With the yellow yolk representing the sun, decorating eggs was a way to welcome spring and ward off bad crops. When Christianity spread to Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, the ritual was reimagined, with the eggs symbolizing Christ's resurrection.