Bright blue spots inside egg shell?

[tardispilot]

Hey there, new poster here with a baffling issue. I have 4 young hens (2 barred rocks and 2 sapphire gems) and a rooster (unknown breed), with only one of the sapphire gems laying so far. My husband made breakfast this morning for himself and our 2 young children with some of our chicken's eggs. I was washing up the dishes afterwards and came across the egg shells in the sink with BRIGHT blue spots on the inside of the egg shells that you can kind of see from the outside. I asked him if he noticed anything weird when he was cooking and he said they looked normal. He's not super observant, but the blue is so vivid surely he would have seen it. It looks like someone took a blue marker and made polka dots in the shell. I can't find anything on Google, so I thought I'd ask here. I've attached photos.

The eggs are collected daily and stored unwashed at room temperature until I have enough to fill an egg carton. They are then washed with cool water and dried with a tea towel before storing in the fridge. We live in North Texas and have had pretty mild weather, so there's no major temperature fluctuations. I'm so confused and freaked out! I'm scared my kids are going to get sick

 

[aart]

Would be good to know if the spots were there when he first opened the egg.
How long did shells sit in sink before you found them?

They are then washed with cool water and dried with a tea towel before storing in the fridge.

Not that this caused the spots but....

Eggs should be washed in 'water warmer than the egg'.

Simple physics, using colder water will cause the egg contents to contract, causing any 'germs' on exterior surface of egg shell to be pulled into the interior of egg thru the shell pores. Using warmer water will do the opposite.

 

[tardispilot]

@aart I know, right? I'm leaning towards maybe not, since he said they looked normal. Like I said though, he's not the most observant guy. They were in the sink about an hour and a half before I got to the dishes. I cracked open another egg and let the shell sit for awhile with no spots cropping up. So far, everyone seems OK with no tummy issues and the hen is acting normally.

The water temp makes sense. I'll amend my egg washing habits

 

[EggSighted4Life]

When you go to cook your eggs do you wash them at all? Or just go ahead and get crackin with the unwashed ones?

I never wash eggs, I just crack them. Same for my family or anyone else I share with.. though I do disclose they're unwashed. My son said my unwashed eggs are cleaner than the washed eggs of his gf's family. And my friend has some yucky ones.. even if you wash dropping off, they still seem to stain.. Set up really makes a difference. I'm hard core about my birds.. and anyone who consistently mucks eggs will be eaten or re-homed.. When hatching eggs sometimes go for $65/dozen.. that's a deal breaker for ME.

I make sure hen bumms stay clean and nests stay fresh.. mucky eggs get rinsed off and used first never going in the fridge OR rinsed then cooked and fed back to animals as a treat on occasion. Mucky too me means droppings.. during the rain season I might see a mud smear left on an earlier laid egg in the same nest.. any dirt gets dusted off of dry eggs.. but I have a good amount of dry bedding between the coop door and the nest so it hasn't been much of an issue despite living in the Pacific Northwest and having our share of the rain.

I started keeping chickens because of salmonella egg recalls about 10 years ago.. Purchasing from NPIP flock helps to avoid having it in your flock as their birds are tested yearly I think. I have YET to have anyone become ill from eating by eggs or birds, from e-coli, salmonella, or anything else. Even my raw chickens stay fresh with no slime or smell for 2 weeks in the fridge after harvesting. It's amazing what a difference there is between our home products and that of factory anything.. done in bulk control diminishes.

And notice I said rinsing.. is running eggs under water doing anything to their bacterial load for real.. that is beneficial? Seems like it would just swirl stuff around unless you're using an anti-bacterial agent.. in my brain at least.. There are some egg washes and such.. but the eggs I'm getting are already costing me probably close to double what the super market ones go for.. my house, my birds, my germs.. bacteria keep us alive.. I'm not brain washed by the limited education I received and the commercials telling me I gotta do thing the way they NEED to commercially.

As noted by the OP.. many of us can even identify exactly which bird laid the egg.. so I keep it simple as much as possible.. limit my exertion because I've already got 15,000 things I won't accomplish each day an another 1,500 thoughts flooding my brain at any given time..

I still put dates on eggs.. and usually crack every one into a dish first.. because I don't like meat or blood spots.. or even accidental shells.

 

[Ridgerunner]

They were in the sink about an hour and a half before I got to the dishes.

Thanks Aart, I missed that. I just cannot imagine bacteria growing like that in that time.

It would be interesting to put a bit of that in something with egg in it to see if if it grows. Just a jar with a screw lid. If it is bacteria it should.

I'm betting on some kind of chemical, probably some powder or crystals for cleaning.

 

[rosemarythyme]

When you go to cook your eggs do you wash them at all? Or just go ahead and get crackin with the unwashed ones?

I usually don't wash them before using - crack and go. I do refrigerate thm unwashed. If an egg is dirty enough that it makes me think "This needs washing" then I rinse and scrub under lukewarm water, use it right away / refrigerate it and put it in front of the line.

 

[sourland]

Wow, that's a new one on me. Hopefully someone can explain.

 

[RainbowHen]

Any chance something was sprinkled in the egg after it was cracked?

 

[tardispilot]

@RainbowHen I'm not sure. The egg shells were at the bottom of the sink under the plates and the pan he used. I can't think of anything that would have been sprinkled or fallen on the eggs. Salt, maybe?

@Jak115 I was out for my morning run at the time he cooked them, so I didn't personally see the yolks. He said they looked, smelled, and tasted completely normal.

This is just so weird and I'm sure it has some simple explanation. I'm an anxious person, so I can't help but worry my kids and husband ate weird eggs or that there's something wrong with my hens

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I have 4 young hens (2 barred rocks and 2 sapphire gems) and a rooster (unknown breed), with only one of the sapphire gems laying so far.

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!

Hubby would likely have noticed rottenness.. and they ate the eggs cooked.. so I probably wouldn't worry too much.

But I also would NOT let my guard down.. When I turn the brightness up on my screen and zoom in on that shell.. I can see all kinds of striations/micro-cracks.. so it very well could have been colonies of something starting to form... Consider NOT "washing" your eggs unless they actually have droppings on them.. Otherwise the outer bloom layer is a coating that protects the interior of the egg that you are RINSING off.

Unwashed eggs stored in the fridge are as fresh as store bought even 6 months later.. washing the bloom off allows faster gas exchange/evaporation.. store eggs that get washed usually get a thin mineral oil coating placed back on.

Thank you for sharing this with us.. I believe 100% that's a bacterial infiltration of some sort.. They use eggs to grow flu vaccines and all kinds of stuff just like that, think they said the membrane was the perfect medium (don't quote my limited memory of the exact details)..