WHAT are the odds of this? More than a trillion to one, reckons Rob Clayton, who says he cracked open no fewer than 15 eggs and found they all contained double yolks.

Mr Clayton, who runs the Deighton Lodge bed and breakfast south of York, was cooking breakfast on Good Friday when the eggstraordinary sight unfolded before his eyes.

He cracked open nine double yolkers and cooked them for breakfast, and then cracked another half dozen and found they were just the same.

Press photographer David Harrison witnessed him crack another double yolked egg.

He said he had bought the tray of eggs from a local farm, Primrose Hill Farm, and had no idea why they were all double yolks.

The British Egg Information Service said double yolkers tended to come from young hens whose hormone system had not yet fully developed.

It said it was quite rare for an egg to be “double yolked” and, although it couldn’t be specific, the instance of double yolkers was thought to be less than 0.1 per cent, which would make the odds of finding six in one box one in a trillion.

However, it pointed out: "Because all the hens in a flock are the same age, it is not unusual to find more than one double yolker in a box."