Embryo??? I hope not...

[beachchick]

So, I was making breakfast this a.m. and broke open one of our hens eggs (they have been laying daily for 3 weeks now) and found this. At first it looked like a worm to me. Then I looked closer and now fear that this is an embryo. Is it??? I don't have a rooster (or so I think). No crowing, no mounting...

I have 6 hens (19 weeks old). 3 RIR (although this past week BYC'rs have suggested one of them to be Red Sex Link) and 3 Black Sex Link. We have been getting 5 eggs daily for 3 weeks.

What do you think??

 

[gritsar]

Not embryo. Meat spot. They are pretty common and harmless.

ETA: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/egg-quality-handbook/29/meat-spots

 

[jossanne]

You won't get an embryo in your eggs if they haven't been set for a few days. If you're gathering them right out of the nests, a fertilized egg won't be noticeably different than a non-fertilized one.

The reason you don't get meat spots very often in store eggs is they run them through a big candler type thing, and take out any that look irregular at all. Those eggs get sold to companies that use them in more prepared foods. So we still eat them...

 

[silkiechicken]

Yep, meat spot, if it was an embryo that you could see with your naked eye, it would have been attached to the yolk, and you would have seen blood veins attached to it, with blood.