I was cooking eggs this morning from some short-term hens (mutts) that were staying with us a few days between homes and found that one of the eggs had a large amount of blood in it! The yolk was intact and everything else looked normal, but the bloody area was as large as the yolk and had some sort of weird clot in the middle of it. Is this an indicator of injury or perhaps stress or is there some other reason this could occur? Of the 3 visiting hens, I believe 2 were laying and we got 6 eggs the four days they were here. If anyone knows why a large amount of blood would occur in an egg, please let me know - I would like to let my sister know what's going on and what she can do (if anything) for the hen. Thanks for any advice you may give me!

I wonder if it was a fertile egg that had started to develop? (this is just a guess-i'm no expert)

I'm relieved to say that my sister has been monitoring the eggs and no other eggs have contained blood like that! Seems to be a rare fluke, at least!

Yes, it should just be a fluke incident. If it happens often with her, she shouldn't be bred because it can be hereditary. I get blood spots every once in a while but they are small like a pin head. What you're describing is a large "meat spot" and it happens sometimes but doesn't usually indicate any health problem. Sometimes a little bit of blood or tissue pass with the yolk and get caught up in the egg like that.

Susie

Thank you, Susie! We'll keep an eye on her - so far no more bloody eggs. Thanks for the info, it set our mind at ease.