Red specks in egg???

[Lucy Brown]

I have all of my backyard hens laying now and all of them seem to have red specks in their eggs. Its near the yolk of the egg but I am not sure if this is an emergency or if it means anything. Does anyone have any idea what this might be?

 

[Corbdee]

I have all of my backyard hens laying now and all of them seem to have red specks in their eggs. Its near the yolk of the egg but I am not sure if this is an emergency or if it means anything. Does anyone have any idea what this might be?

A lot of times, it is just some small blood cells from mating that get inside the egg. Someone recently described it that way, and also mentioned that you never see those in grocery store eggs because they make sure there are none with that in it just for professionalism. Most eggs actually end up that way, as it is relatively natural for them to do, so there’s nothing really to worry about.

 

[Corbdee]

Could you include a photo?

 

[3KillerBs]

Little flecks of red are probably blood spots or meat spots. They're harmless (if unappetizing), evidence of a minor glitch in the egg-production mechanism. Most hens only have them occasionally.

You can ignore them or pick them out when using the eggs (this is one reason that we should break eggs individually into a separate bowl before combining them for use).

I personal would not breed a hen who consistently has blood/meat spots in her eggs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Look at the blood spots section of the Egg Quality Handbook.

https://thepoultrysite.com/publications/egg-quality-handbook

And watch this U-tube from Auburn.

It has nothing to do with a rooster. When the ova is growing inside the hen to become a yolk, it is surrounded by a membrane full of blood vessels carrying nutrition to that growing yolk. When the yolk is released to start its journey through the pullet or hen's internal egg making factory that membrane splits. It is supposed to split on a line that does not have any blood vessels but occasionally there is an oops. That may be a tiny drop of blood or it may look like a huge amount. It's always a good idea to crack our eggs in a separate bowl before we add them to anything.

Any hen can do this at any time. Some are more prone to it than others. This is more common in pullets that are just learning to lay so if yours have just started I'd give them a while to see if they correct this. Patience is often a good thing.

When the Egg Quality Handbook says between 2 and 4% of all eggs contain some blood, they are specifically talking about the commercial flocks. It regularly happens with our eggs too. Those eggs are safe to eat, they find those eggs by electronically candling them and separate them out. They do not want their customers getting a surprise like that. But they do not throw those eggs away. They sell them to bakeries or maybe to a pet food manufacturer that opens the egg before it is used. If my eggs have a tiny drop of blood I generally ignore it, but if it is much blood I just can't get past that YUK! Factor so it goes to the dogs. My dogs have no Yuk! Factor.

 

[Lucy Brown]

Thank you so much for your replies!