Spots inside my eggs.... what are they?

[Zackriley1]

I recently went into the chat room to see if anyone could tell me what these spots were that are appearing inside my eggs and one nice lady suggested posting some pictures to get a more educated answer. So... here are the pictures, I'm sure that all of you professional egg people can help me out on this easy question! Ha! I am a beginer and I am still very green on all of this chicken stuff, but I am enjoying it tremendously! Thank you for any help!In the second picture I pulled the spot away from the egg so that it could be seen a little better!

 

[Andrea G]

I get those sometimes too and I have no idea what they are. I hope someone who knows can tell us.

 

[Mahonri]

"meat' spots. Some call them blood spots.

My GC Maran hasn't laid an egg without one. It's probably genetic and it's totally harmless to eat although I usually pick it out before cooking and I don't ever boil her eggs.

 

[MaggieRae]

Hey Zack with a K. My best guess would be a meat spot with the pictures, but I could very well be wrong.

Here is a thread that will explain about them : https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=98141

Best of luck!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

The short non-technical answer is that they're something called "meat spots" and are harmless little flecks of matter from the lining of the hen's marvelous egg-making apparatus. Eggs can also get blood spots which are similar, just little dots of blood from the same place. You could pick them out before or after cooking, or close your eyes & mix it in. You see these more often in home-grown eggs because store eggs are candled to detect these spots & those eggs are used elsewhere. Also, these spots fade with age, and our home-grown eggs are truly fresh.

 

[Zackriley1]

thx Maggie... I think that it was you in the chat room that suggested posting pictures???? Was it???? Thanks anyhow!!!!!

 

[MaggieRae]

Sure was.

Best of luck!

 

[Uzuri]

Quote:
And if you have trouble with the closing your eyes and mixing them in part, just keep in mind that that "elsewhere" that those commercial eggs are used are in prepared grocery goods...

Think of that next time you eat packaged cookies

 

[MaggieRae]

Quote:
And if you have trouble with the closing your eyes and mixing them in part, just keep in mind that that "elsewhere" that those commercial eggs are used are in prepared grocery goods...

Think of that next time you eat packaged cookies

Actually, I have no problem mixing them in.

 

[RocketDad]

I posted this in another thread on the same topic:

If it's a little spot, it's called a "blood spot" or "meat spot." It's an artifact of the yolk detaching from the ovary follicle a bit soon. The "old wives tale" is that fear causes it, but it's probably caused by the hen jumping around when the yolk is about to detach. I think mine get them from jumping off the high perch in the morning - I get about 1 spotted yolk a week, and not always from the same hen.

Some facts I found on the web about this:
- Brown eggs are more likely to have blood/meat spots than white eggs.
- Eggs in stores are carefully candled to get eggs with spots out of the consumer eggs.
- Hens locked in laying confinement pens are not jumping around, and won't have them detach early.
- The spots can fade as the egg ages, and grocery store eggs are not as fresh as consumers might think.

This means that you will probably never see a spot on a grocery store white egg. If they bug you, you can pick them out of the egg, or just scramble the egg. It's fine.

I had to do some research on this because my wife freaked out. I thought about putting a little flyer in the "for sale" egg cartons just to reassure the neighbors, but haven't bothered. Nobody has complained, yet, but our volume dropped off and consumption went up with the school year/change of season.​