Stop my roo from mating

[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.

 

[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.

 

[3KillerBs]

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

You pick out with a spoon.

If they're big I pick them out.

If they're tiny or if it's just a tiny speck of blood I ignore it -- though I use the egg in a recipe where a bit of cooked meat doesn't matter rather than for poaching.

If it's a bloody mess or has multiple meat spots I cook it to feed back to the chickens.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

If it's a bloody mess or has multiple meat spots I cook it to feed back to the chickens.

The dogs don't mind them, either.

 

[NatJ]

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.

There is no way for you to tell if an egg will hatch a male chick or a female chick.

So if you do not want any more males, you are right to not hatch any eggs.

 

[aart]

There is no way for you to tell if an egg will hatch a male chick or a female chick.

So if you do not want any more males, you are right to not hatch any eggs.

Exactly!
...and if you don't want to hatch out eggs, no reason to have a male, IMO.

 

[Carol Lynn Rose]

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?

Yes it is totally normal for blood spots. I am pretty new to chicken keeping and fertilized eggs taste no different than unfertilized ones. I sometimes remove the spots but notice that when I scramble them up they disappear.

 

[kodster]

Since you stated that the Welsummer just started laying, the blood spot is likely from her still working out the kinks in her reproductive tract. Normal, at this point.

Now, on the issue of fertile eggs. You CAN eat them, as long as they haven't started developing, and if you're collecting them daily (10 minutes under the hen isn't long enough to start developing). A roo can mate with a hen 30 days BEFORE the egg is even laid... the hen retains the sperm for that long in her reproductive tract, so you really can't stop the process.

It takes the right consistent temperatures (99.5F) for several days in order for the eggs to start showing any development in producing a chick, so you couldn't tell before three days have passed, minimum. If the hen stayed on the egg(s) for that long, then you'd have a broody hen, and could pretty much be assured you're going to have development, but if they get up and leave the nesting box because there are only one or two eggs in it, they're likely not going to be broody. They like having several eggs, a clutch, to set on. This is the point of collecting the eggs daily, to prevent that clutch from being created.

 

[LoneOak]

I'm wondering how you decided that the egg was fertile to begin with. I have never heard of a way to tell if an egg is fertile or not until it has been incubated for a while.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I'm wondering how you decided that the egg was fertile to begin with. I have never heard of a way to tell if an egg is fertile or not until it has been incubated for a while.

Fertile eggs have a bullseye() look to them, nonfertile eggs are just a tiny white dot