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

[sumi]

Yes, they are perfectly fine for eating. And

 

[CALAM]

I found what Tina wrote very interesting but how do you explain the following. I have hen and 4 ducks - no drake. there is more demand for my hen eggs so I eat duck eggs. The ducks are free to roam for part of the day after they have laid in their house and these eggs are collected every day. Once collected I store the eggs in a cool pantry. So today I picked 2, 3- day old duck eggs, broke them in a frying pan. One had blood vessels , the other egg had a browny piece of meat 4cm long attached to the yolk which I tried to identify as a possible foetus but I am not even sure of that. If it was a foetus and there is no drake, how do I reconcile that? If it is not, what is it? How can I be sure there will be no repeat. If anyone could helpmake sense of what happened, i would be grateful.

 

[kconner24]

Is it true that you can get salmonella from eating one of these eggs with the blood spot in it?

 

[kconner24]

My friend always asked me why I would crack each egg in a clear glass before putting into the skillet with other eggs...

I always heard that you would get sick from eating them, so I threw them out.

I don't find one very often.

Thanks!

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Is it true that you can get salmonella from eating one of these eggs with the blood spot in it?

Nope. A blood spot is just a burst capillary as the egg is being laid. It is fine to eat. Blood spots will disappear over time and are the sign of a very fresh egg. Meat spots are fine to eat too, although many people remove them with the tip of a knife before cooking the egg.

Oh, and one more egg myth to debunk--a cloudy egg white is not a sign of a spoiled egg. It's carbon dioxide in the white, and is actually the sign of a very fresh egg as it dissipates over time.

 

[kconner24]

Well, thank you for clearing that up.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

I found what Tina wrote very interesting but how do you explain the following. I have hen and 4 ducks - no drake. there is more demand for my hen eggs so I eat duck eggs. The ducks are free to roam for part of the day after they have laid in their house and these eggs are collected every day. Once collected I store the eggs in a cool pantry. So today I picked 2, 3- day old duck eggs, broke them in a frying pan. One had blood vessels , the other egg had a browny piece of meat 4cm long attached to the yolk which I tried to identify as a possible foetus but I am not even sure of that. If it was a foetus and there is no drake, how do I reconcile that? If it is not, what is it? How can I be sure there will be no repeat. If anyone could helpmake sense of what happened, i would be grateful.

Sounds to me as if you had a large, gross meat spot. A wild drake could have fertilized your duck, but the egg wouldnt' have developed without being at very warm temperatures for a while--close to 100 degrees for several days. Did anything chase your ducks? It sounds to me as if they were chased, or something else was very physically stressful, because they had such large reproductive accidents.

I'm afraid nothing will stop this from happening--I personally crack eggs into a little bowl before adding them to the big bowl, so I can pick out any huge meat spots. I don't worry about the little ones.

Crack some of your very fresh eggs and look closely at the yolk. You should see a small white circle on the yolk. You may have to rotate the yolk a bit--the spot could be on the bottom. If the spot is the same opacity all the way across, the egg is not fertile no matter how much brown stuff you see inside it. Follow this link to see some good, close-up photos. http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/_images/Fertile_vs_Infertile_egg.png

(hoping this will help someone else, as I know this is a very old thread.)

 

[evagay]

it is a meat spot from a ruptured vessel as the egg was being formed. It does not mean it is fertile. It is also safe to eat. You can take it out if you wish but it will not hurt you and you will not taste it. So you are right your worried family is wrong and has nothing to worry about eat and enjoy !!

 

[alleydebbie]

Ok Normally I would take a spoon and try to get it out but this egg I got this morning has a red spot on the yolk that will not come off/out!! What could that mean?

 

[DreMarFarm2013]

I cracked an egg the other day that had a lot of blood spots and I think, meat spots. I had not heard of meat spots. Do they look like white, hard seeds about the size of a shelled sunflower seed? It was really gross. I threw it out. I have not seen that since. I don't know which chicken it came out of. There were five or six such spots.