Flights Of Fancy

At the get-together on Saturday, the discussion between myself and a fellow who isn't on the team but works in the same location, and in a similar field, turned to the gold market. I made a comment that something a person at the table said or did wasn't just fabulous, or awesome, it was fabulously awesome. Like a peacock that lays golden eggs, was my example*.

The fellow, Jake, responded that he'd like to have one of those. I agreed at first, but then wondered if perhaps it'd wouldn't cost more than it's worth to have such a creature. We realized the crucial question is how much of the egg in question will be gold? Is the entire egg solid, just the shell, or just the yolk in between? The eggs are described as being similar in size to a turkeys, which isn't shabby, but it might require a bit of funding just to provide proper care for the bird, so we might be looking at breaking even at best.

We hypothesized that for reproductive purposes, the egg can't be solid gold, since a chick isn't going to survive encased in that. Further, the yolk couldn't be gold, since it consists of various important nutrients designed to feed a chick if the eggs been fertilized. I suppose you could argue that the yolk is gold in unfertilized eggs, but the act of fertilization causes a chemical metamorphosis which makes the yolk viable. We eventually settled upon the idea it's most likely the shell is all that's gold.

Jake wondered how the chick would escape the egg if the shell is gold. I pointed out the gold is fairly malleable, so it's really just a selective mechanism, the advantage resting with the stronger chicks, better able to push at the enclosure until it breaks or tears. That did lead to a concern that for the shell to be thin enough for even strong chicks to break through, it would have to be too thin to adequately protect its charge. If the parent sits on the egg, the shell might not retain its shape, instead being smooshed, and the chick inside along with it.

I think we've concluded egg-laying birds are more trouble than they're worth.

* Upon further reflection, I realize that females - the peahens - don't typically have bright plumage like the males. So it wouldn't be quite as fabulously awesome as we thought. Unless, it's a female with bright plumage, or a male that lays eggs. Either of which would be fabulously awesome.