Egg Question

I buy only brown eggs & they have to be cage free hens.
I have found in every egg (12) they are full of blood specks.
I have the understanding(can be wrong) that blood specks is caused by stress.
On the egg carton it says cage free, natural grain feed, free roaming nesting hens, hand gathered. Stress??
I didn't & won't eat bloody eggs, I don't care if they are only specks.

Blood spots are more often a genetic (hereditary) trait. My nicest, most affectionate hen always had a single blood spot (actually a small piece of tissue from the hen's reproductive system) in her eggs--none of the other hens with her did.

It sounds like your supplier is either giving you eggs from a single hen (they would not be the freshest) or has a flock that are related and all have the "blood spot" trait.

Breeders generally avoid using hens that produce eggs with blood spots in their breeding program since many people will not eat them.

All eggs should be "Candled" before they are sold. Then the seller would cull the blood spot eggs.
How often does this person find these eggs ? When the hens are running free, they will make a nest & lay many days before they are found.
We have our hens "Free Range" but not free to travel the world! All eggs are laid in the nest boxes & gathered 3X a day. Never is an egg more than 8 hours old when it goes into the cooler.
Bernie

These eggs were bought at Walmart,so that may just say it all right there?

Bernie, our chickens are cage free and do roam on an acre of land at times. They go back to the coop when it is time for them to lay an egg. Ours have never made a nest outside the run, unless they were outside the run and couldn't get back in. Those eggs get tossed on the garden.
And ours can travel the world if they want...........LOL

OMG, I have gotten blood spot eggs in the past before we raised chicken. And they didn't come from Wal-mart, so I guess there is no reason to cut down wal-mart.

And no, I don't work for them or own stock in them.

I would definitely go back to Walmart for a refund.
The jury is still out on trusting those big stores with selling organic & the such. Awful lot of money to spend on something you are not able to check where it came from.
Find a "local" Farmers Market & there you can at least talk to the person that grew the things you buy.
We are not certified organic, (to expensive & lots of paperwork), but we grow our things with no pesticides if we are able to. This year we are using next to none. I found 2 very good weeder people. They are keeping up & our old reliable guy will be back this week. He is also very good.
Bernie

Bean patch.

If you free range your chickens, how do you assure they will use the nests inside the coop to lay and not lay in the woods and such? My chickies are still babies in the brooder, so I haven't gotten there yet.

Gwendalou, ours just naturally go into the coop and use the nest boxes. Sometimes when we have young pullets who have just started laying they'll leave them elsewhere, but they quickly seem to get the idea. With brand new pullets and no older ones to copy, you might want to leave them in the coop until a little later in the day, although ours seem to lay at all hours - from 7 a.m. to about 4 p.m.!

I just don't see what's to prevent them from seeing "oh, here's a nice little nesty area' and using that instead of making their way back to the coop. I guess I'll find out! In the area I'm planning to 'free range' them, there's no way I'd ever find the eggs later. Maybe I won't let them free range in that area til they are of egg laying stage and have started using the nest boxes. Maybe I'll confine them to their run til after they start laying. Their run will be plenty big enough.

That's probably the easiest approach; once they get the habit they usually keep it up even if they're outside most of the day.

Thats what I'm fighting right now.. i have several that are close to laying eggs & idk for sure that they will lay in the boxes. 2 that are of laying age.. haven't laid an egg i can find in 2 weeks. They were trying 2 weeks ago to go broody & I kept taking the eggs from them. (Nutmegs sisters) I know they are laying somewhere.. but the sneaky little girls are good at hiding them from me. Its a big game to them i think. before they went broody they were all laying all the time in the nesting boxes. They just seemed to know, "hey I sleep here, I should lay my eggs here too". good luck.

I've had chickens that religiously laid in their nest boxes and others that would not and would move as soon as you found their hidden nest.

I suppose from a chicken's point of view, it makes sense to hide their eggs from people who are stealing them. I do think it helps to keep them confined until they get in the habit of laying in a box. Possibly not letting them see you take the eggs helps them not move their nests. I had one hen who would run over and watch me whenever I took her eggs and then never lay in that nest again. Inconvenient for me--but she was really a smart chicken.

I have a hen that consistently gives a small blood spot in her egg... The egg is beautiful (on the outside) I eat them... I'm not sure which one is laying it, but I am pretty sure none of my hens are stressed in any way. I have read about the blood spot in eggs and although it's not desirable for sale, it's my understanding it's harmless to eat.

I've never read or heard that it was due to stress.. Not saying you are wrong... I hope my hen is not stressed!!

Welcome to the Poultry thread Christmascactus!

The odd thing about Pepper & Clove (Nutmeg's sisters) is that when i take their eggs Pepper gets very friendly & wants me to hold her & carry her around the yard. She's never like that till she sees me steal an egg. Clove has always been that friendly. Its cute really but kinda odd too. She did that when I moved Nutmeg into the house also. i have weird chickens. :) someone gave me a hiccup egg the other day too.. but i still haven't figured out who it was. It was laying in the dirt next to the pen (just remembered that). so i guess mine don't always lay in the box...

I never knew the blood spots in eggs were anything but normal. I always use them. I figure they get disguised in whatever I'm cooking! Up til now (and until my chicks start laying which will be a while), I get my eggs from the grocery store (organic only) and from local sellers at the farmer's market.

It may not be til next spring that I get any eggs from my chicks. I've read that chickens that aren't old enough to lay by fall often don't lay til the spring and then they lay for a longer period of time than spring chicks that begin to lay at the end of summer/fall. I don't really care too much. I figure they'll lay when they're ready. I'm more eager to get them into a coop and get a routine going with them, seeing how they do free range (and how my dogs and cat do!). I also am eager to give them treats! I have cantelope to give them tomorrow. I brought one out to sit on the porch with me today.

I'm going to order the chicken tractor tomorrow and then after it arrives, they can go in there til I get the big coop here. I am so anxious for them to start eating my weeds! LOL Gotta put these babies to work!!!

OMG!!! What's all the rukus about a little pin prick spot of blood in an egg. There's no such thing as a good steak that doesn't have some blood in it. Shesh

Gwen!! You have been to my home and seen the large free-range area for my girls, They don't lay in the woods, and they learn from the others about the nests, they hear all that cackling and you don't think they go and investigate, trust me they know when another hen is bragging. and they won't be out done! Why do you think they all fight over the same nest. Pleeeeeze.

ZZ's it is true that generally a blood spot is the result of stress, but, not the stress you are thinking of. The girls exert pressure on the egg while in production, and during the passing of the egg. Usually it is with the newbies, and in exerting that energy they can create a minute rupture of very small vein and this is where the blod spot comes, also as Catscan, said some will genetically even pass very small parts of tissue. Geeze it's just protein. Kassy you just my kind of gal: GO Walmart. Be nice to me now. Haystack Hey if you don't believe me ask Harm....She knows it all. OUCH

Haystack--I am so hurt. Shattered really. I thought I was the one who knew it all.

Having an existential crisis dealing with my own newly perceived fallibility.....:0)

Actually, a lot of people are disturbed by the sight of blood spots--although I personally agree that protein is protein and I like my steaks raw. There are some religious proscriptions against eating eggs with bloods spots...they aren't considered kosher--I don't know about halal.

Actually I know it all; I'm just quiet and shy.

I've had my suspicions about that.....

LOL Haystack, I'm in Calif.. Stress has a different meaning here. That is just a word game.. Bearing Down is not called Stress... Sorry..

I have a hen that consistently lays a blood spot. Newbies to fresh eggs are turned off by that.. Just ask Cody. LOL

If she is passing bits of tissue with every egg, what organ is she disposing of?

Hens cackle when they lay an egg? Tell that to mine.. the roo's cackle when the hen's lay the egg.. the hen just walks off grinning. Nutmeg dropped an egg right out on the rock walkway last night.. & walked off.. if I hadn't seen it fall i wouldn't of known she'd laid an egg. never a word. My RIR's cackled till teh entire neighborhood knew they were laying eggs. These girls are shy.

eww.. i agree with Catscan...i like steak nearly raw & protein is protein but i just can not eat an egg with a blood spot in it.. but then its probably bc i grew up being told they'd make you sick & now just to look at it makes me feel sick. Got something worse than a blood spot.. seems the neighbors grandson (4 yrs old) got to the nest to gather eggs a little faster than grandpa.. they couldn't tell which eggs he gathered from where... i went to crack an egg last night in the frying pan.. & out fell a chick. There is something to be said for Grandma's advice to always, always crack your eggs each into a little bowl before putting them in anything.

Thank you Haystack. ^_^
Thats all I have to say for this thread.

That egg apparently wasn't laid in a proper nest box.

no but she tried.. she unfortunately couldn't' get to the "proper nesting boxes" considering she was penned up with the babies in the front yard. She walked around for a good 30 minutes, crying & kept hopping up on my lap turning circles & crying, looking for something but i couldn't' figure out what she was looking for. Thank goodness she didn't lay the egg in my lap! I was just getting ready that night to ask on here how long after the babies hatch that they start laying eggs again when i got my answer. A beautiful bluish olive colored egg.

Thanks zzs.
Love the story about pepper ^_^
Haystack,it was not just a pin prick spot of blood,they were loaded with specks put all together they would amount to almost the size of the yellow.

This message was edited Jul 28, 2009 11:32 AM

Christmas, I thought you meant one blood spot per egg. What you described above - yuck! I wouldn't touch those either. And I would take them back, if you're able.

I wouldn't eat anything with that much blood in it. I agree you should get your money back! I can ignore one speck and do all the time, but that would really be a turn-off!

Blood Spots
Also called meat spots. Occasionally found on an egg yolk. Contrary to popular opinion, these tiny spots do not indicate a fertilized egg. Rather, they are caused by the rupture of a blood vessel on the yolk surface during formation of the egg or by a similar accident in the wall of the oviduct. Less than 1% of all eggs produced have blood spots.

Mass candling methods reveal most eggs with blood spots and those eggs are removed but, even with electronic spotters, it is impossible to catch all of them. As an egg ages, the yolk takes up water from the albumen to dilute the blood spot so, in actuality, a blood spot indicates that the egg is fresh. Both chemically and nutritionally, these eggs are fit to eat. The spot can be removed with the tip of a knife, if you wish.

silkiechick--why would the eggs from Walmart (not because they are from Walmart) have so many? It sounds very strange.

ya know i honestly don't know. i was curious and i found that info when i did a search i thought it was interesting. here is the link- http://www.aeb.org/LearnMore/EggFacts.htm i raise my birds caged in 5 in 1 large breeding pens where we keep them it is not safe for them to be free range, i'd love to if we could though. i have in all these years only had one egg with one blood spot in it. i have had some from the store with it but i've never seen one with more than 2 or 3 spots. i agree that is very strange.

Great link! I think it should be added to the sticky..

The brand name of these eggs are Farm House, Walmart just sells them,they don't have anything to do with the hens.
This is stamped on the carton:
Okla.Dept. of Agri.
Distributed & packed by Texas Licensee
Cal-maine Foods,Inc.
General Office & the address is listed Jackson,Miss.
so where did they come from Texas,Okla,Miss. or wherever usa?
It's no telling where,what conditions or whatever these poor hens/eggs came from. I'm starting to wonder to or not trust the label when it says cage free,etc.
I'm going to try & find local eggs, so I can see for myself where & how the hens & eggs are treated.

Is Okla. the state you are buying them in ?
I would imagine Walmart only needs one license.
Cal-maine Foods is packaging them.
They could come from a foreign country, who would know.
Labeling country of orgin isn't being enforced very good, as far as I can tell.
Our big super market, Cub Foods, when it first happened in winter, had signs up telling where the produce was produced. No longer. Maybe people didn't buy enough when they posted the country. Like in February I bought some oranges, they came from South Africa!
Bernie

No S.C.

Sorry Christmas: I had no idea you were talking lots and lots of spots. My apology, and I would not eat them either. :o) Haystack OH Christmas, I'm glad you joined us.


ZZ's you did it again!!! What part of the organ is she getting rid of? LMBO Your to funny. Hay

Hey CountryGardens, Cub Foods no longer exsists here. They shut the 2 stores that they did have in Green Bay down. And I know of at least 3 in the southern part of the state that closed or are closing too.

Haystack, thanks-that's ok.

Is there any way to get a pic Christmascactus? Sounds very interesting.. and personally, if it were freckled with spots like that.. I doubt I'd use them either.

Sounds like second rate, throwaway eggs being sold cheap.. that's my suspicion anyway!