Smaller egg with blood on shell

[KCNC06]

This afternoon I decided to gather eggs while I was out luring the guineas into the bird pen, only one of our hens (our white leghorn) has been laying so far and gathering an egg a day just seems silly. Anyway. When I started picking the eggs out of the nest, there was one egg that is slightly less white and smaller than the leghorn's eggs and it had a bit of blood on the shell. Out leghorn has been laying for about four months now and lays an egg a day, I never noticed blood on any of her eggs before and none of them have been this small (though it is only slightly smaller than her normal eggs). We have six other chicken hens and five guinea hens. I'm not sure if which of them might be laying if this egg is from a different hen. Our "easter egger" and barred rock are the same age as the leghorn, but haven't laid yet. We also have two partridge rocks and two golden seabrights, but I really thought the seabrights were too young to be laying.

Here's a picture of two eggs - a normal egg from the leghorn beside the smaller egg with blood. First question - is it likely that our leghorn laid a smaller egg with blood on it after laying regularly for this amount of time? Second question - if this little egg could be from one of the other hens, who would you guess is laying? I didn't think any of the other breeds laid white eggs.

 

[KCNC06]

P.S. - When I went out to close the door to the chicken house this evening I asked the hens who was laying. No one fessed up.

But I did notice that other than our leghorn, the barred rock and one of the golden seabrights have very red combs.

 

[feathersnuggles]

You didn't say how old are your seabrights. And an EE will lay an egg color that is in a range of colors, pink and tan among them. The blood shows this egg is a first for someone. Is anyone squatting when you move your hand above their backs?

Congrats!

 

[purpledonna]

My Henny laid one similar yesterday https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=281249 - although without the blood. Nothing to worry about!

Congrats!

 

[bills]

I see a little blood from time to time even from two year old layers. Not to worry.

I am really suprised that the other hens that are the same age as the leghorn haven't been laying at? Sure you don't have an egg eater amongst them?

 

[KCNC06]

An egg eater? Wouldn't there be something left behind to indicate that someone had laid an egg? Actually, before our leghorn moved her nest to the nesting loft she had a couple other nesting locations and we think that the guineas were crushing the eggs. We always leave one egg behind when we collect because if we don't our leghorn moves her nest the next day. The golf ball trickery didn't work with her. When the guineas were crushing her eggs though we always saw the crushed shells. We haven't lost an egg since she moved into the loft though. Unless of course these other two (the EE and Barred Rock) have been laying somewhere else and the guienas are getting their eggs. The EE has been extremely talkative the past month or so, so we've expected to see eggs from her soon and the Barred Rock's comb is very red.

At the same time I was told that we shouldn't be surprised of no one else (other than the leghorn) started to lay this year since we were coming into the shorter daylight time of the year and we don't have a light in the chicken house or yard. I happened to luck into a job that gives me access to the state's official chicken lady. Our Barred Rock had....I forget what it's called (she had a sneeze and a bit of a rattle in her chest). Anyway. I was told that they needed 14-16 hours of light per day to go into lay. Which is part of the reason I was so surprised to find this little bantam egg on Saturday! I suppose it's possible that our EE and/or Barred Rock have decided to lay their eggs somewhere else and we just haven't found the hiding spot yet. They are able (and allowed) to jump the fence for free-ranging during the day, so if they're laying outside of the house the nest could be just about anywhere.