I just came from locking up my chickens for the night and found a late egg in the egg box (collected the rest at around 3:00 this afternoon). The egg had a smear of blood and about 10 more little blood splatters/drops as well. One of my two speckled sussex hens was in the nest box at 4:15 when I rounded everyone up from their afternoon free-ranging session so I'm guessing it was her. In four years of chicken keeping I've never seen blood on the outside of an egg. Any idea what could cause this? Don't know if it is relevant but there is a new rooster in the coop this fall...or should I say that one of the pullet chicks I bought in the spring has turned out to be male and he has recently discovered that he is a rooster. Could that be connected?
Could be a broken blood vessel from laying. It happens occasionally. I would check the hen to make sure the blood clotted and she's not bleeding freely