What Are Chicken Eggs Made Of?

Jorge from Brazil/CC-BY-2.0

A chicken egg shell is made of calcium carbonate and the inner part of the egg is made up of the exterior and middle albumen, an air cell and a cuticle. A chicken egg has 15 different parts to its structure.

Each of the 15 components in a chicken egg play a vital role in the life of the egg. The outer shell can have as many as 17,000 pores that allow air and moisture to pass in and out. From exterior to interior, the egg shell is covered with an outer and inner shell membrane, followed by the chalaza, exterior albumen, middle albumen and the vitelline membrane. The nucleus of pander comes next, followed by the germinal disk, yellow yolk, white yolk, internal albumen, chalaza, an air cell and, finally, the cuticle.

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