Bloody egg when cracked. what to do???

[chickenalice]

I cracked an egg this morning, and it was filled with blood.
What does this mean, and what do I do about it?

They all have fowl pox right now. Does this have anything to do with it? I thought that eggs from chickens with fowl pox were still safe to eat. should we stop eating their eggs?

 

[Chick1043]

bump

 

[chickenalice]

bump?

 

[Mother_Hen2011]

Bump sorry I couldnt be of any help hopefully some will come along soon there are sooo many smart peeps here on BYC

 

[SkyWarrior]

Looking at the Merck Manual about Fowl Pox I don't see anything about bloody eggs. Could this be a secondary infection?

I would stop eating eggs and look for secondary infections and possibly treating that. JMO.

 

[Nonny]

Was it filled with blood like red yolk/whites?, or just meat/blood specks?

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

Bloody eggs have nothing to do with fowl pox. My flock has already had it. You have something else going on.

 

[TrystInn]

If there's no chick in there or a dead embryo, its likely that the embryo died off early from bacteria. This happens when the shell is too thin or if the pores are too large, in many cases. Otherwise, its bacteria from the nest or the hen, herself. You can see this during candling, when you see a red line around the diameter of the egg.

If there's a fully developed chick in there::
Here's what likely happened - in the process of making the first peep hole, the chick accidentally hit the blood vessels. Unfortunately, this generally means the chick will die of blood loss or drowning in its own blood. Its a common enough experience, but its always horrible.

What's supposed to happen is the chick makes the first peep hole, then rests. As it breathes, the blood vessels retract and close off the supply from the interior of the egg to the chick. Once this is done, the chick may then continue hatching. Without the homeostatic pressure change from that first pip, the chick's blood supply is still open to the veins in the membrane which is why they bleed out.