Blood filled egg?

[djscorpio]

Hi there folks.

One of my girls laid a slightly larger than usual egg this week and when I cracked it open last night I found it was filled with blood. I must admit I didn't examine it very closely as my daughter was in the kitchen with me at the time and totally grossed out, but I think there was a yolk in there and the white was very dark with blood. Everyone seems to be o.k.

So I'm wondering does anyone have any ideas if this is a problem or just a quirky blip?

Many thanks

 

[Marigold]

Bloods spots of varying sizes within eggs are not uncommon, and usually don't indicate that anything is wrong with the hen. They're quite common in young hens getting to grips with 'puberty' until their hormones settle down, and also in older hens towards the end o f their laying life. They're usually caused by a minor haemorrhage when the ovum detaches from the ovary at the early stage of the formation of the egg, before the shell is wrapped round it. I can understand why people don't fancy eating eggs with blood spots in, but it's OK to remove smallish ones and the rest of the egg will be unaffected. If there was a lot of blood in the egg, it might possibly indicate some kind of ovarian infection, and you just need to keep an eye on the hen who laid it, assuming you know which one it was and can identify her eggs among others.
This is an interesting link, about egg abnormalities of various kinds
http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/07E03A06.pdf

 

[djscorpio]

Thanks for getting back to me Marigold. I've taken a look at the link and the amount blood was way more than in the 'fried egg' looking picture. The entire contents were just red. So from the links saying in many cases if it's that bad there's an underlying infection. The only problem is I have no idea who it could be

 

[djscorpio]

I've just entered 'blood inside egg' on google images and found one just like mine on a thread called 'big blood clot inside brown egg' on backyardchickens.com unfortunately the mystery was never resolved.

 

[Marigold]

You'll just have to wait and see. Its a bigger problem if you sell your eggs, or like to give them to friends and family, of course, as you don't know what's likely to be inside each egg. What sort of hens do you have, are they all the same breed? One of the reasons I keep a mixed flock is so that I know which bird has laid that day, and which is her egg, as they're all producing different colours, sizes and shapes. If you get a repeat of the problem you may have to keep watch more closely over which one is going in to lay, and mark her egg with her name as soon as it's laid, so when you open it you can see what has happened. (I'm assuming you can tell the difference between your hens, even if they're all the same breed)
Did you mean this link? http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644155/big-blood-clot-inside-brown-egg
Yes it does look very alarming!

 

[djscorpio]

Yes that's the link/picture.

I do occasionally sell out eggs but obviously I won't be able to do that again for a good long time until I'm confident it won't happen again. I've got three different breeds of hybrids: bluebelles, white sussex and speckledy's. The speckledy's are obvious but it's often hard to tell the difference between the others. I guess as you've said I'll just have to watch monitor the girls and their eggs more closely over the next few weeks.