# Chicken eggs with blood spots inside
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 14, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991 "2006-01-14T20:32:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991/1 "2006-01-14T20:32:36Z")
This has happened to me a few times - I’ve cracked an egg into a bowl, and noticed what appeared to be spots of blood, and sometimes tiny lumps of tissue. Why does this occur? Does it mean that the egg could have been fertilized before being collected? And, are such eggs safe to eat? I’ve always thrown these out, just to be safe.
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### Author:  [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991/2 "2006-01-14T20:49:04Z")
> [@Amazon Floozy Goddess](#):
>
> This has happened to me a few times - I’ve cracked an egg into a bowl, and noticed what appeared to be spots of blood, and sometimes tiny lumps of tissue.
Well guess what, you are pretty close!
> [@](#):
>
> Why does this occur?
It is a fertilized egg!
> [@](#):
>
> Does it mean that the egg could have been fertilized before being collected? And, are such eggs safe to eat? I’ve always thrown these out, just to be safe.
The egg is fertilized BEFORE the shell is formed around it.
Then it is laid and later collected. Toss away. 🙂
Eating such eggs is a matter of preference AFAIK. I believe the Chinese and some other oriental culture consider old/aged eggs a delicacy. As the farmer said as he kissed the cow “Everyone to his own taste!” 😉
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2006, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991/3 "2006-01-14T21:14:18Z")
"Mommy, my egg tastes bad. "
“Stop complaining and just eat it.”
“Mommy…”
“What now?”
“Do I have to eat the beak?”
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991/4 "2006-01-14T21:20:14Z")
I fish it out, because it looks nasty. But I still eat the egg. Just not with a friggin’ scab fried into it.
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### Author:  [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2006, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991/5 "2006-01-15T01:27:38Z")
> [@spingears](#):
>
> It is a fertilized egg!
Not necessarily. I’ve seen plenty of blood spots in eggs that I know weren’t fertilized (my family raised chickens for years, and didn’t keep roosters in with the hens we used for eggs).
I’d just pick out the spots (cooking tongs work well as tweezers, albeit large ones) and then use the eggs.
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### Author:  [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991/6 "2006-01-15T01:45:11Z")
> [@spingears](#):
>
> It is a fertilized egg!
Unless they’re free range, the rooster would have needed a pair of bolt cutters to break into the hen’s cage.
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991/7 "2006-01-15T02:52:47Z")
[Blood spots](http://www.aeb.org/LearnMore/EggFacts.htm#bloodspots) do not mean the egg is fertile.
> [@](#):
>
> 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.
They are fine to eat.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2006, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991/8 "2006-01-15T06:41:45Z")
6 responses and not a single link to the relevant [Mailbag article](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/megg.html)??
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2006, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991/9 "2006-01-15T07:35:36Z")
I used to have a silly aversion to eating eggs with blood spots in them, owing largely to a misinformed Home Ec teacher who told us they were bad and must be thrown away. They seem to be a lot more common here in South Africa, though, so I’ve had to retrain myself to just use the egg as normal, or I’d be throwing away a dozen eggs a month.
So far, I’m fine. The leprechauns in the bread bin agree.
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2006, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-eggs-with-blood-spots-inside/339991/10 "2006-01-15T11:07:31Z")
I never eat eggs with blood spots, even though I know they can’t hurt me. They’re just a little too gross.
I once had a dozen double-yolk eggs. Now I’ve heard they separate the doubles out and you can buy them that way, but my carton wasn’t marked as such. It was very weird.