By Scott Meeker

smeeker@joplinglobe.com

It’s a variation on that age-old question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

In this case, the chicken came first, but it’s more a matter of which one laid the egg. And, while we’re on the subject, how?

Doug Greer said he was collecting eggs from the chickens he keeps at his Joplin home when he came across an unusual find: a strange, U-shaped egg.

The eggshell has two rounded sides joined by an arch. Think of the shape of a boomerang or a fortune cookie.

Greer, who is a custodian at First United Methodist Church, said one of his chickens laid the egg on Tuesday.

“I’ve been raising chickens off and on all my life,” he said. “But I’ve never seen an egg like it before.

“I was gathering all the eggs and saw it. I kind of wondered what it was I was seeing in the nest. When I picked it up, I had to make sure I didn’t break it.”

Greer said he’s not sure which of his 45 chickens laid the egg, though he might want to look for a chicken that’s waddling like a duck or is in a particularly “fowl” mood. Yolk it up all you want, but it couldn’t have been easy.

He incubates and raises the chickens himself. He said he started out with just a few because his daughter wanted the fresh eggs. He now sells eggs for $1.50 per dozen at the church.

Greer said he’ll probably keep the odd-shaped egg under his wing for the time being.

“I’ve had a lot of funny-shaped eggs, but nothing ever like this,” he said. “I’ll probably hang on to it for a while until it goes bad and then throw it away, unless someone else wants it.”