With Easter now upon us, I’m sure many of us are about to partake in the bizarre custom of eating large chocolate eggs delivered by a beribboned bunny. But as you’re smashing up your chocolaty treat, take a moment to celebrate the marvel of its form. The humble egg, an item found in millions of kitchens worldwide, is a symbol not only of Easter, but of spring, fertility and new life – yet it’s something we seldom stop to truly appreciate.
The common ostrich is the tallest and heaviest bird alive today. It can grow up to 2.8 metres in height and weigh up to 150 kg, which is 50,000 times heavier than the smallest bird, the bee hummingbird. Unsurprisingly, the eggs that the ostrich lays are the largest produced by any bird. Weighing about 1.4 kg on average – the equivalent of two dozen chicken eggs, or around 3,000 hummingbird eggs – it takes about 50 minutes to soft boil one and over an hour and a half to hard boil.
