What are the red "blood spots" on egg yolks?

[redhen]

I was just wondering..my family says its a fertilized egg....i told them no...but actually, i'm not very sure..lol...so, what is that little spot of blood you sometimes find on an egg yolk?, Thanks for any help, Wendy

 

[tfpets]

Heres my new answer! I found it somewhere else!!

QUESTION:
What causes blood in eggs that are freshly laid?
ANSWER:
BLOOD SPOTS:
Blood spots occur when blood or a bit of tissue is released along with a yolk. Each developing yolk in a hen's ovary is enclosed in a sack containing blood vessels that supply yolk building substances. When the yolk is mature, it is normally released from the only area of the yolk sac, called the "stigma" or "suture line", that is free of blood vessels. Occasionally, the yolk sac ruptures at some other point, causing blood vessels to break and blood to appear on the yolk or in the white. As an egg ages, the blood spot becomes paler, so a bright blood spot is a sign that the egg is fresh.

Blood spots occur in less than one percent of all eggs laid. They may appear in a pullet's first few eggs, but are more likely to occur as hens get older, indicating that it's time to cull. Blood spots may be triggered by too little vitamin A in a hen's diet, or they may be hereditary - if you hatch replacement pullets from a hen that characteristically lays spotted eggs, your new flock will likely do the same.

MEAT SPOTS
Meat spots are even less common than blood spots. They appear as brown, reddish brown, tan, gray or white spots in an egg, usually on or near the yolk. Such a spot may have started out as a blood spot that changed color due to chemical reaction, or it may be a bit of reproductive tissue. Since meat spots look unappetizing, cull a hen whose eggs characteristically contain them.

Tina

 

[ScottyHOMEy]

Blood and meat spots are common. Not a high percentage but, once you'e cracked enough home-grown eggs open, they aren't all that rare and they're nothing to worry about. perfectly harmless.

But I can understand how they could be a little disconcerting if one is encountering the first one. We can thank the commercial producers who candle and cull such eggs from their supermarket line. But the culls aren't destroyed. The merely go off to the bakeries, or to the processors who produce powdered eggs and the milk cartons of pre-scrambled, and such.

My eggs go into the carton, unwashed, pretty much in the order in which they are laid. Unwashed, ungraded.

I have a friend to whom I give a dozen or so each week. Down to earth fellow, trying to raise his six kids to share that trait with him. He's said it was a revelation to his kids that not all eggs are the same size. and that they're not necessarily clean after being laid. And waht gives with this egg with two yolks???

Blood and meat spots are part of that same reality. Most consumers have just been shielded from it.

 

[Akane]

Perfectly safe to eat and you can bake with them just fine. People just overreact because all our store bought eggs are strongly candled and sorted to only sell the perfect ones as is. The rest are mixed into various other things they sell so you don't notice. It's also not all that uncommon. You'll see all sorts of odd things with eggs from your own flock. Most are just fine to eat even if they don't look like the pristine store bought eggs.

 

[CluckCluck18]

I can't believe you would cull a chicken because of a meat spot. # 1 it's edible or # 2 just pull it out with your finger. No biggie

 

[tfpets]

I believe it is called a meat spot, its something that came out of the hen, not from it being fertile. It happens to unfertile eggs too.
Tina

 

[redhen]

...

..meat spot?....what causes it?..thanks for the iinfo tina!

 

[Akane]

A blood spot is just that. A spot of blood that broke off from a blood vessel while the egg was forming. A meat spot is a piece of actual tissue that broke off.

 

[Attack Chicken]

It's kinda common

 

[redhen]

wow! thanks so much for all that info Tina!..awesome..

, i really appreciate it. Wendy