Stop my roo from mating

[Bufforpintonfamily]

So i have had my chickens for about 6 months and recently are welsumer started laying. When i opened the egg i noticed it was fertile and it had some blood so i tossed it. I like having a roo to protect the chickens but can i stop them from mating?

 

[bobbi-j]

If the egg had just been laid (I’m guessing that’s what you meant by “just been hatched”) it was not developing. Eggs do not start developing until they have been incubated under the right conditions. Your egg may have had a “meat spot” in it. Those also happen in unfertilized eggs. You just don’t see that in your store bought eggs because they’re candled and imperfect eggs are not sold.

 

[aart]

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.

A fertile egg will not begin to develop into an embryo until it has been kept at ~100°F for at least 24 hours.

 

[LavenderDaFlerf]

You can't stop a rooster from mating its their instincts, sorry. Blood spots are normal in even un fertilized eggs it just happens sometimes. Was it developing or just a blood spot?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Three ways to stop mating.

1) Don't have Roos

2) Keep the Roo in a seperate house/run. Doesn't help with the limited predator protection Roos are sometimes claimed to provide, obviously.

3) Cull the Roo. (see 1, above).

Bloodspots happen. Essentially all my eggs are fertile - I have a large, free ranging flock, with a number of roos (and hatch my own mutts). Even so, blood spots are rare. and you can avoid development of fertilized eggs by collecting often, wash clean, and get them under refrigeration promptly.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Way too short to start developing. They need more like a day before you can maybe notice. It was likely a meat spot. I have a hen that lays eggs that havw them constantly

 

[bobbi-j]

Ahh i see, i was thinking of hatching them but i dont want roosters and i dont know of a way to tell the difference when its an egg. Thank you for the info i might just have to make a second coop or refrigerate the eggs.

If you don’t want roosters, don’t hatch any eggs. If you’re going to pen your rooster separately, why not just find him a new home where he can be happy?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Ok yeah I believe the egg was under the chicken for 10 minutes before I realized it had laid.

An egg will not start developing in just ten minutes. It is not the rooster's fault if there was a tiny spot of blood on the egg. If there were bloody veins, that would only happen if the egg had been kept warm under the hen for several days. Do you gather your eggs every day?

 

[neo71665]

Blood spots happen in eggs even if you don't have a rooster. It's natural and while might be off putting to you the egg is 100% fine to eat once cooked. Before all the tech we have now days it wasn't totally uncommon to get an egg from the store that might have a blood spot. Modern computerized scanners and have cut that down.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I had no idea you can eat bloody eggs, what about if it has meat spots?

You can remove meat spots, either before or after cooking. Blood spots, if they're not bad, I usually ignore.

Some hens are prone to laying eggs with meat or blood spots, so if you can ID which hen/eggs those are, those are the ones I pull aside and don't use for hard boiling (since you can't open it up to remove the spots, and I don't want to serve eggs with spots inside). They're fine for baking with, scrambling, etc. as no one will see the spots once you remove them.

If meat/blood spots gross you out, it's best to crack each egg into a cup for inspection before mixing into a batter or putting into a hot pan, so you can remove any spots before cooking.