One of my hens is giving me eggs with specks of blood inside

[BesideStillWaters]

I'm not sure which hen is laying the egg with blood inside. I suspected my Rhode Island Red, but it looks like one of my sex links may also being laying eggs with blood inside. I found a great article here (https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/common-egg-quality-problems.65923/) about egg quality problems, but I'm not sure what to do to try to stop this from happening. We would like to give some eggs away or try to sell some, but we don't want to sell any with blood inside. I've tried candling on a few but the inside of the shell looks kind of mottled when and the texture prevents me from seeing inside well. Is there a way to prevent this, or will we need to give a warning when giving away / selling eggs that this can happen?

"- Incorrect levels of vitamins A and K in the hen's diet;"
They all eat the same feed.

- Administration of the drug sulphaquinoxaline;
I don't know what that is but I haven't given them any drugs.

- Large amounts of lucerne meal in the layers' diet;
Could someone explain what this is?

- Feeding stale, wet, or moldy feed;
Yuck, I haven't done that.

- Continuous lighting in the coop;
I try not to do this but it has happened that I forget and leave the light on for a few hours after dark. But how would this cause the blood spots?

- Frights, stress, and disturbances.
There is a raccoon who has been trying to get in the house. Scaring them half to death. But this has been going on long before the raccoon showed up... I don't know how to prevent this.

 

[neo71665]

Have a roo in the flock?

Lucerne is a green leafy legume that is dried and used for stock feed. It has about 22% protein in its dried form. Meal is the ground up version of the lucerne hay.

 

[Floof]

When I've had this happen it was always related to a scare or disturbance. I had a neighbor who would NOT keep their dogs in their yard or out of mine and they went after my chickens a couple times. I also forgot to close their external run door a few times (the part they lived in was secure) and the sound of it banging in the breeze upset them enough that 1 of my hens dropped a shelless egg right there on the roost and the rest had blood spots for a couple weeks after. I wouldn't worry too much about it but if you sell to coworkers or friends then just give them a headsup that your hen got a fright and they might see some meat spots and they don't effect the quality of the egg.

 

[BesideStillWaters]

Have a roo in the flock?

Lucerne is a green leafy legume that is dried and used for stock feed. It has about 22% protein in its dried form. Meal is the ground up version of the lucerne hay.

At the time these were laid, yes. (Because of feather loss, he is caged away from the girls for now.)

Oohhh okay. I'll check the feed I have and see how much is in there.

When I've had this happen it was always related to a scare or disturbance. I had a neighbor who would NOT keep their dogs in their yard or out of mine and they went after my chickens a couple times. I also forgot to close their external run door a few times (the part they lived in was secure) and the sound of it banging in the breeze upset them enough that 1 of my hens dropped a shelless egg right there on the roost and the rest had blood spots for a couple weeks after. I wouldn't worry too much about it but if you sell to coworkers or friends then just give them a headsup that your hen got a fright and they might see some meat spots and they don't effect the quality of the egg.

Sorry yours went through the scare of being chased by dogs. The banging reminds me... I had to fix the chicken house roof one night (a raccoon started eating his way through the skylight) and I had to use a drill and drill through metal roofing to fix it. I'm sure I scared them all really bad that night, worse than a banging door. I almost forgot about how noisy that was. The day after I fixed it, I only got one egg. I expected they were too scared to lay at all but I thought that was all that would come from it. I guess I can expect bloody eggs for the next week.

Also a shellless egg, wow! I've heard that can happen, but I've never had one.

Thanks, will do!

 

[cluckcluckhens]

What about fart eggs or very small eggs that are just egg whites. You and all of us learn things every day with chickens. Let's all do the chicken dance.

 

[aart]

I'm not sure which hen is laying the egg with blood inside.

Post a pic of blood in egg?

It can happen without any disease or stress or trauma.
Some birds are more prone to it happening.

Blood spots are from a blood vessel breaking when ova is released from follicle.
Meat spots are from a tiny piece of tissue breaking loose from the reproductive tract.
I think it's explained in this excellent video, which is worth watching regardless: