Artist Lays Egg

Poincheval hatching eggs

Chuck mentioned a few weeks ago that French performance artist Abraham Poincheval would soon be sitting on a dozen eggs until they hatch. He's now well into the process of doing that and has hatched nine eggs already. [News24.com]

Back in 1946, the legendary PR man Jim Moran did something similar. He sat on an ostrich egg for 19 days until it hatched, to publicize the movie The Egg and I.

Jim Moran with egg

But the most famous case of a human incubating an egg may be from 1958 when Mrs. Ella Petry carried an egg in her cleavage for 21 days to prove that she could hatch an egg that way. It started as a dare in her neighborhood pub. And yes, the egg did eventually hatch.

The Louisville Courier-Journal - June 4, 1958

Mrs. Petry's stunt was recreated in 1969 for Lord Snowdon's TV documentary "Love of a Kind" that explored the strange relationships between people and their pets. The documentary then sparked an extended debate in the British press over whether it was actually possible for a woman to incubate an egg that way. Would there be enough warmth? The scientific director of the British Egg Marketing Board eventually weighed in on the debate and said yes, it should be possible. In fact, it was apparently an ancient custom among peasant women in Italy to do exactly this. The gender of a chick hatched in a woman's bosom is said to foretell the gender of the woman's next child.

Daily Sketch reporter Erica Wallace recreates Ella Petry's incubation stunt. Life - Dec 12, 1969