Blood inside eggs: How often is normal?

[ChristyDawn]

I have a question regarding my neighbor's eggs. He has 8 or so great layers was selling extra eggs to everyone in the neighborhood. They have stopped buying from him because about 3 out of every 12 eggs are bloody on the inside. I was asked if this is normal, but I have only experienced on bloody egg in a year and a half. Is this a worrisome sign or could his hens be getting ruptured blood vessels that often?

 

[woodmort]

The blood in the egg occurs at some point while the egg is moving in the oviduct before the shell is added, probably from a broken blood vessel in the duct--some people think it is a developing baby chick. Apparently this happens to some hens periodically, some regularly or some never and can, if the owner really concerned, be detected by candling (commercially it is done by electronic scanners). The egg can be safely eaten by removing the blood--which isn't mixed with the egg/yoke-- with a knife or your finger or, if it doesn't nauseate you, eaten without. As far as preventing it, aside from culling the offending hen--assuming one knows which one it is--there is probably little one can do. This is a good reason to crack an egg into a cup before adding it to your cake mix though.

 

[ChristyDawn]

Thanks for the response! I had never heard of it happening so often and was concerned for their hens. It is good to know there is nothing wrong with them. I am not sure if anyone in the neighborhood will go back to buying. They aren't chicken people and were pretty grossed out.
Thanks again.

 

[nancypo]

Were these unfertilized eggs?

 

[ChristyDawn]

Yes, they are fertile eggs and from what I understand they have a leghorn roo that needs to meet the ax. He is mean, mean, mean!