i know that usually when there is a little blood spot it means its fertilized - usually the blood spot forms after a few days? i found a freshly laid egg (2nd of hers!) that was broken and it had a blood spot in it. i only have 2 chickens out side, and i am pretty sure that the other chicken is a girl. is this normal for the first couple pullet eggs or should i be worried?
I'm sure someone will post with the correct terminology for it, but he goes with the simple version of what I know about this. The blood spot in a fresh egg has nothing to do with being fertile. It is a hemorrhage from the hen herself while forming the egg. It is not harmful in any way. you can eat the egg with the spot in it, or flick it out with a fork or a spoon if it bothers you. These will usually disappear after the egg has been refrigerated for a couple of days. Jean
I second what Jean said. I've always heard the way to tell if they are fertilized when broken is to see the white circle inside. Mine had blood spots for awhile when it was cold and then when it got warmer and they could find more bugs and had grass to eat, they disappeared. Mine usually show up in the colder months when all they have to eat is scratch feed and cracked corn.
I third that, LOL. Blood spots have nothing to do with fertilization. I remember a classic novel where a farm hand told the boy that the blood spot was what the rooster left-I can't recall the book, but it was required reading in school way back when. When you crack an egg, look for the blastodisc, the white spot on the yolk. It it is sharp and clear and small, usually that is an INfertile egg. If it has a ring around it like a bullseye, it has been fertilized.
Quote:I've never noticed anything like that with our Ameracauna eggs, and there are two roos in with them. They definetely do their rooster thing, but the eggs, although small, look no different then the gold sex link eggs when cracked. Maybe they need a little more practice? Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. Is it very small?
Maybe you're not looking at the right thing, LOL. I know which hen Hawkeye is successful with because of that bullseye. Here is a picture of the spot you should look for-sorry about the reflections: Hawkeye was with my girls for five months before I got one fertile egg; unusual, but he had never had any hens in with him before I bought him and it took him awhile to get it right.(the second pic is from someone else on BYC)
Huh, okay. Thanks for showing me! Now that I think about it, I did hear somewhere that it often takes about 8 months before a roo is regularly fertilizing the eggs. I've been thinking about hatching some of our eggs...Maybe next year. I'd love to have some from our roo, Red, and our black pullet Blackie, in particular. But first we'd either need to get an incubator or a silkie who'll go broody.
I fifth that!!..Those are called meat spots here and they have nothing to do with eggs being fertile..... Roosters don't take that long to make eggs fertile...a few weeks is all....