Freckles

[carladababe]

What causes the brown freckling on my chickens brown eggs?

 

[benjoycei]

I think its just excess egg shell. Mine have it too

 

[MontanaChickenLady]

Because I rinse off all of the eggs I collect I've found the speckles are actually blood. If you rinse the egg in warm water and keep wiping at it with your hands or even a wet paper towel, you'll find the spots come off and when you dry the eggs with paper towels, you'll find the paper towel discolored with kind of a reddish brown color.

 

[Cindy in PA]

It's excess coloring and I think it is cute. Some just lay speckled eggs. It does sometimes wash off if you rub hard enough, but why would you want to?

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Speckles are not blood, spotted shells are just the coloring laid on and then extra in spots. They are fine, nothing wrong. The reason it washes off under water when rubbed is because she'll coloring is put on right before they are laid and it can be rubbed away. Just like if a dark color egg is laid in straw, you can see a pattern of the straw where it touched the egg.