I'm a little self conscious...

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

All mine lay nice eggs but my red sex link lays exceptional eggs. Large and perfectly shaped brown eggs.

 

[Kiwibird]

I thought this was interesting:

Blood Spots in Eggs

These are small red to reddish brown spots found in or around the yolk. They are usually caused by one of the tiny blood vessels in the ovary breaking at the time when the yolk is released. Often people mistakenly think they indicate a fertile egg and it is the start of a chick forming.

High levels of activity or disturbance, particularly at the time of ovulation are likely to increase the incidence of these blood spots.

Because free range hens may eat grass which contains a substance called rutin that has the effect of stopping bleeding, free range hens eggs tend to have less blood spots than those from caged or battery kept birds.

Meat Spots in Eggs

Meat spots are usually brown in colour, darker than blood spots, and they are found in the egg white (albumen) rather than the yolk. They consist of small pieces of body tissue, such as the internal wall of the oviduct. Their incidence varies according to bird age and health and also due to breed differences.

In brown shelled eggs, they are more difficult to identify when candling and brown egg laying hens are more likely to produce them than white egg laying hens.

From http://www.poultry.allotment.org.uk/Chicken_a/Chicken_Egg_Excess/problem-eggs-yolks-whites.php

The mention of "high levels of disturbance" rings true to me, as I now remember that I went through a phase of having a lot of blood spots, just before I caught a rat (eww) which I expect was bothering my girls. And the free ranging thing fits with your experience.

Also found this at http://www.blpbooks.co.uk/articles/egg_problems/egg_problems.php

Egg with blood on the shell

This is often the result of straining on the part of the hen, where large eggs are involved. It may also be the case with a pullet first coming into lay. Avoid giving pullets too much artificial light until they are well grown before the commencement of lay.
If the shells have small spots of blood on them, rather than streaks, then suspect the presence of red mites. Treat with an anti-mite preparation from the vet or specialist suppliers.

Egg with blood spots inside

This is usually the result of blood escaping from the ovarian follicle and becoming embedded in the albumen. It can sometimes be the result of shock or stress and normally rights itself. There is some evidence that there is a hereditary tendency for this condition, so avoid breeding from such a hen.

Now the mites would also create disturbance, wouldn't they? Just a thought.

On http://www.agriworld.nl/public/file/pdf/20081126-20_wop_abnormaleggs.pdf it says that vitamin K deficiency increases blood spots. Not sure what that is in. Will edit and add. It also says that Warfarin toxicity increases blood spots. Now that is in some rat poisons, so access to those is a long shot but something to rule out, I guess.

OK, Vitamin K is in leafy green vegetables. Another reason why you have noticed free ranging helping.


More info from http://ps.fass.org/cgi/content/full/87/8/1659 . I have added the italics - I thought you may feel relieved to read that bit:

Presence of blood in table eggs is a longstanding quality issue addressed by the egg grading standards of the USDA (2000). Table egg processors and egg breaker plants use various forms of candling technology to detect and remove blood spot eggs before packaging or further processing.

The incidence of blood spots in table eggs varies but is generally reported by the commercial industry as less than 1% of eggs produced. Nutritional factors, such as a lack of vitamin A in the diet, have been implicated as increasing blood spot incidence (Bearse et al., 1960). Hen lines can be genetically selected for blood spot eggs (Becker and Bearse, 1973), with some selected flocks producing more than 50% of eggs containing blood spots (Merkley et al., 1973). Other factors may also affect the rate at which hens produce blood spot eggs, including the blood pressure of the hen or whether the birds are caged (Fry et al., 1968; Mench et al., 1986). Blood spots in eggs typically originate from the ovary of the hen during the ovulatory process or from the upper oviduct (Nalbandov and Card, 1944; Shirley, 1965).

Salmonella has been found in the ovaries of infected laying hens (Miyamoto et al., 1997; Gast et al., 2004), including Salmonella Typhimurium in commercial flocks (Barnhart et al., 1991). Therefore, laying hens, if infected with Salmonella, may produce eggs with blood spots that could contain this pathogen. In an indirect survey, table eggs with blood spots procured from several commercial flocks were nearly twice as likely to contain Salmonella Enteritidis as eggs without blood spots (Schlosser et al., 1999). The objective of this study was therefore to determine if blood spots present in albumen promote survival or growth of Salmonella in table eggs.​

 

[Xero]

My cuckoo marans lay enormous light brown eggs (5-6 a week for each, sometimes one every day). One has a weird "painter" and has unusual looking eggs (not ugly just unusual). My leghorn hen lays huge white eggs (even her first egg was pretty big). I got to pick my marans from a local breeder though and picked out hens with wide rears with nicely formed vents (he is breeding for egg production more than egg color), I lucked out with my leghorn, and the other pullets are still to be decided. Definitely cull for quality if that is what you are worried about, or build them a "reject" pen and don't breed them.

I share my eggs with my family and they seem to like the assortment of the HUGE maran and leghorn eggs with the little EE pullet eggs (green, blue, pink cream). I've been getting people interested in buying them but I'll be looking into that later.

What in the world is up with your other chicken's eggs? Might want to cull the whole lot of them or experiment with a different feeding plan. Maybe get them a chicken tractor to move them around on grass if you are scared to leave them alone?

 

[journey11]

Thanks for the research info Kiwibird! That gives me several things I need to rule out. A lot of that is information I had not heard before, even on here. Glad to know that 50% is actually a lot more than should be happening and that I'm not crazy!

Regarding disturbances, I have really noticed that to be true. I have had a few occurances where the neighbor's dog snatching chickens and upsetting the rest of the flock caused worse bloodspot for a week or two following the event (dog is gone now--relocated!)

My EE's are kind of the control subject I guess. Their eggs just rarely have bloodspot. So that helps me see where I need to start investigating.

The extra lighting might be a good place to look first. I will be able to turn the red heat lamp off in my coop here very soon then I can see if (and hope) things improve. I have it on to keep them warm, but it also makes them lay. I've been getting eggs, lots of eggs, all winter as a result. The australorps are still pullets, so maybe they are laying too much too soon. My brahmas will be 2 years old in April. The EEs are the same age as the australorps....

Also the blood spotting on the outside of the shell concerns me and I'll need to look into that and rule out either the lighting or mites.

Diet is also suspect....I will try supplementing it next winter when they are stuck inside. They will be ranging a lot now that the snow is gone. And I'm fencing a quarter acre for them to have safer access this spring, so they'll get out even more.

Xero--If I can rule out some of these other things, then I may be left with culling, as you mentioned. I am hoping to build a couple additional coops someday (on my DH's honey-do list) so that I can better manage my flock and hopefully pick a breed to work with improving. I'm hoping my DD will want to do 4-H when she gets a little bigger and I'd love to raise our own birds for show. I think that will be really neat.

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

Consider selling the less then perfect eggs already hard boiled as dog treats/food. You could probably put four in a zip lock sandwich bag and sell them for 99 cents. You won't have to invest in egg cartons. That is almost three bucks a dozen. Don't bother to peel them...for my dogs I sharply rap the egg in the middle of the long side, with a butter knife, and use a spoon to scoop out the two halves. Dogs don't care if there are little bits of shell in their eggs. If I were going to do this in any kind of number...I'd have a rubber stamp made that calls them something that implies they are not for human consumption...'pooch pearls' or something cute and creative. Hard boiling them will make them nice and clean...people will feed dogs eggs with spots, and other natural defects...that won't consider feeding them anything 'dirty' though.
Terry in Tennessee

 

[Kiwibird]

If codliver oil is easy to get where you are (it is in the health supplement section of the supermarket here, and in some stockfeed stores), I would recommend making that one of the first things you try, because it's really easy to do.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[AZKat]

Both of my EE's lay well, but only one gives me large eggs, so based on my limited experience, EE's are 'luck of the draw'. My best brown egg layers are the Barred Rocks, although the Delaware is not far behind, and the Del's eggs are a very pretty pinky-beige.

 

[gottsegnet]

We have a red sex link that lays beautiful jumbo eggs about three times a week. They're gorgeous eggs, if a bit infrequent. Our Rhode Island Red lays a light brown egg almost every morning, but it is a bit smaller. Probably medium...not sure. I've never sized the eggs, but they are physically smaller than a store bought egg. Our Australorp lays eggs a half shade darker and a hair larger, but they're beautiful, as well. We do get occasional blood spots, but I've never paid attention to which eggs. I'll have to try to notice in future.

We also have a brown leghorn who laid an egg a day until it got cold and hasn't laid since. Hoping she'll start again soon!

(And our chickens are all almost exactly a year old.)

 

[PeepsInc]

Are you watering them with chlorinated town supplied water?.............Maybe you could barter with your eggs. Trade them for bedding hay,or something.

 

[journey11]

Quote:
No, I am so blessed to have a cistern for watering my animals and my garden (and my car

).

I did barter a couple times with my neighbor. He's always looking for something to get into with his tractor!

He's my best customer actually. Sometimes he buys them, sometimes I trade.

Gotten a lot of good suggestions on here...you guys have been really helpful!