Spots on eggs

[Sharon Bee]

Can anyone tell me what are the small dark brownish spots that show up on some of the eggs? I thought they were part of the shell but upon scraping and washing, some of it comes off. Is it blood? Is it normal? I hate to give people those eggs. The spots aren't there all the time.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Probably just excess calcium.

http://www.alltech.com/sites/default/files/alltech-egg-shell-quality-poster.pdf

 

[donrae]

Sounds like speckling. It's a hen with genetics to have a darker egg color, but her body glitches and doesn't apply the brown "paint" evenly, instead giving the speckled look. I get them sporadically, mostly from my Welsummer but I do have a green egg layer that puts brown spots on her eggs--camo eggs!

It's normal, doesn't effect the hen or the egg. The folks I gift eggs to love the speckles, it just adds more variety.