Breeding chickens on a home farm to produce eggs and meat is the oldest branch of agriculture. It’s hard to imagine a village farmstead without multi-colored laying hens wandering around the yard and a frying pan with hot scrambled eggs from the freshest eggs. Often the housewife discovers blood clots in a chicken egg. There is no desire to eat such a product. The poultry farmer needs to understand the reason for the bird’s “bloody” marriage and eliminate it.
Why is there blood in chicken eggs?
An egg matures in a chicken’s body in 24-28 hours.First, the yolk is formed, then the formed white surrounds it, and lastly the shell is formed. At any of these stages, a blood clot can form. The reason for this phenomenon may be:
- abdominal bruises (the chicken unsuccessfully flew off the perch and hit its stomach, causing a microtrauma in the oviduct with bleeding);
- an excess of roosters in the flock, which injure the hens;
- improper diet with an imbalance of microelements;
- inflammation of the oviduct and ovaries;
- the presence of internal parasites;
- eggs in young laying hens are too large.
Depending on the location of the blood clots, the exact cause of their appearance can be determined.
In protein
The most likely cause of blood clots in the squirrel is the poor diet of the bird and the presence of worms in the laying hen.
Lack of mineral nutrition (shells, chalk, crushed eggshells), lack of greens in the diet, leads to improper formation of eggs. Not only does the chicken begin to “shed” them (lay them without shells), but red dots and balls may appear in the white.
Parasites in a chicken’s body injure its internal organs, causing microbleeding.
Some of the blood enters the egg as it forms. If the bird is heavily infected, even the helminths themselves can get into the egg white.
On the shell
Blood appears on the shell when the chicken lays an egg. An egg that is too large injures the oviduct or cloaca, leaving traces of blood on the shell. This often happens in young chickens of egg breeds, which immediately begin to lay large eggs.
Sometimes the egg gets stuck in the oviduct and the young hen cannot lay it.A quick way to help the bird is to inject a small amount of sunflower oil from a syringe into the cloaca. The lubricant makes the shell slippery and helps the egg slip through.
In the yolk
Blood clots or barely noticeable spots appear in the early stages of yolk formation. This is often due to an excess of protein supplements (meat, fish, meat and bone meal, cakes) in the diet.
Excess protein in chicken feed disrupts mineral metabolism and reduces the absorption of calcium and phosphorus.
A lack of vitamins D, E, A leads to inadequate functioning of the ovaries, and the integrity of the follicle membrane is disrupted. This can also cause blood to appear in the yolk.
Due to diseases of the oviduct and ovaries (inflammation, the presence of tiny pathogenic microorganisms), at the early stage of egg formation, blood enters the yolk, and then it is mixed with the protein. This egg has a pasty, reddish-yellow substance inside.
Ways to solve the problem
Having determined the cause of the presence of blood in the yolk or white, it should be eliminated:
- bring the livestock diet into line with the norm;
- start feeding vitamins and provide laying hens with mineral supplements;
- install roosts at a safe height and remove excess roosters from the flock;
- treat the bird for worms.
Diseases of the oviduct (salpingitis, vitelline peritonitis) are difficult to treat, especially if they are in an advanced form. Such a bird is rejected. The valuable breeding hen is placed in a separate box and treated by douching the oviduct with antiseptic drugs.
Useful tips and prevention
To prevent the appearance of “blooded” eggs in domestic laying hens, it is necessary to follow the rules for keeping and feeding poultry:
- Avoid injury to the bird.Perches should be placed at a height of 60-90 cm from the floor. If they need to be installed higher, the crossbars are nailed in the form of a “slide” or “ladder” so that the chicken can jump from one perch to another, going down. The distance between the crossbars should be no more than 50 cm. The number of roosters in egg-bearing breeds should not exceed 1 per 10 hens. For meat varieties, it is allowed to keep 2 roosters per ten layers.
- Regularly deworm chickens. Scheduled deworming is carried out twice a year - in spring and autumn. If laying hens are free-range, parasites are poisoned more often - once a quarter. There is a risk of infection in chickens that are fed fresh grass collected from damp meadows.
- Provide the livestock with balanced feeding. The general feed rate per laying hen is 150 grams. Overfeeding is just as harmful to birds as underfeeding. It is optimal to feed laying hens with complete feed, which contains all the elements necessary for the bird in a balanced form.
At home, chickens are fed a grain mixture with additives. An approximate daily diet for a laying hen looks like this:
- crushed grain mixture (corn, wheat, barley) 60 grams;
- wheat bran 20 grams;
- sunflower cake 10 grams;
- fish meal 5 grams;
- feed yeast 3 grams;
- fresh herbs (herb flour), vegetables 40-50 grams;
- table salt 1.5 grams.
A premix (Zdravur Layer, Ryabushka) is added to the grain mixture for laying hens to enrich it with microelements. Chalk, shell rock and shells are placed in a separate trough so that the bird can freely peck them at any time.
To protect chickens from inflammation of the oviduct, keep the chicken coop, nests and walking areas clean.
Is it possible to eat bloody eggs?
If only the shell is stained with blood, such a product can be eaten without fear.
It is enough to wash the shell with soap.
Eggs with small blood spots and clots can be eaten after heat treatment - well-fried or hard-boiled. Blood particles are removed from the mass.
