This is not a scientific study. This is just my observation.
I have been plagued for years with blood spots. (meat spots) Little clots of yuck that show up in the egg white. I NEVER break an egg directly into what I'm cooking! Every egg is broken into a bowl and the gross bit fished out. I easily have blood spots in 50% of my eggs. At times, even more. I warn all my egg customers to be on the lookout. I am sure I have lost customers over this, and those who still buy are an intrepid bunch!
My initial flock was mostly Black Australorp. There were some girls who laid spotty eggs. I believed, WRONGLY that over the years, as I crossed and bred and hatched, this tendency to lay blood spot eggs would thin out and eventually disappear. This has NOT proven to be the case.
I have now gone through several generations of chickens, with new genetics tossed into my mutt mix. But there is still a genetic thread of those original Black Aussie hens...and I consistently hatch hens who lay blood spotty eggs.
It is my UN scientific conclusion that the appearance of blood spots is extremely genetic and highly inheritable. This trait has NOT thinned out and become less of a problem. I am horrified that what others find as the rare occurrence, I can count on as a daily event when I crack an egg.
It has been suggested that it is environmental. But what is so different about my environment? I wondered if it was the constant presence of the No Pest strip? But I had blood spots long before I ever hung a No Pest strip. Others have accused the cedar bedding and for a stretch I switched to white wood shavings, with no change in blood spots at all! I even had my egg customers reporting blood spot counts to me to see if the percentage dropped. It did not. I have to conclude that it is an inherited trait. A bad one!
I just kept getting meat spots since I was reluctant to kill every hen and start over from scratch. However. it would seem nature and fate are taking care of that for me. Earlier we had bears trashing the hen house and the bear ate all but one of Jonny Anvil's chicks! (eggs that I hatched). And then, within the last week, a mother coyote teaching her young ones to hunt happened upon my ranging hens. I had 12 hens in the morning and 4 when I closed them in for the night. Of the 4 remaining, only 2 lay an egg. The other two are senior citizens. Both roosters survived. I have a total of 6 birds and the one lone survivor of the bear attack. I am about ready to throw in the towel. We will not be raising meat birds this year since we simply cannot build a bear proof structure. NO time and we're tired of trying.
This looks like a natural end to my line of genetically meat spot layers. An end that is out of my hands.
My conclusion is that if you have a high incidence of blood spots and think you can breed it out, you will be disappointed! It is a trait that, in my opinion, should mean you NEVER breed those hens or use the original rooster (since I do not know if it is passed through the male or female side of the equation).
Sigh. I am seriously bummed out.
I have been plagued for years with blood spots. (meat spots) Little clots of yuck that show up in the egg white. I NEVER break an egg directly into what I'm cooking! Every egg is broken into a bowl and the gross bit fished out. I easily have blood spots in 50% of my eggs. At times, even more. I warn all my egg customers to be on the lookout. I am sure I have lost customers over this, and those who still buy are an intrepid bunch!
My initial flock was mostly Black Australorp. There were some girls who laid spotty eggs. I believed, WRONGLY that over the years, as I crossed and bred and hatched, this tendency to lay blood spot eggs would thin out and eventually disappear. This has NOT proven to be the case.
I have now gone through several generations of chickens, with new genetics tossed into my mutt mix. But there is still a genetic thread of those original Black Aussie hens...and I consistently hatch hens who lay blood spotty eggs.
It is my UN scientific conclusion that the appearance of blood spots is extremely genetic and highly inheritable. This trait has NOT thinned out and become less of a problem. I am horrified that what others find as the rare occurrence, I can count on as a daily event when I crack an egg.
It has been suggested that it is environmental. But what is so different about my environment? I wondered if it was the constant presence of the No Pest strip? But I had blood spots long before I ever hung a No Pest strip. Others have accused the cedar bedding and for a stretch I switched to white wood shavings, with no change in blood spots at all! I even had my egg customers reporting blood spot counts to me to see if the percentage dropped. It did not. I have to conclude that it is an inherited trait. A bad one!
I just kept getting meat spots since I was reluctant to kill every hen and start over from scratch. However. it would seem nature and fate are taking care of that for me. Earlier we had bears trashing the hen house and the bear ate all but one of Jonny Anvil's chicks! (eggs that I hatched). And then, within the last week, a mother coyote teaching her young ones to hunt happened upon my ranging hens. I had 12 hens in the morning and 4 when I closed them in for the night. Of the 4 remaining, only 2 lay an egg. The other two are senior citizens. Both roosters survived. I have a total of 6 birds and the one lone survivor of the bear attack. I am about ready to throw in the towel. We will not be raising meat birds this year since we simply cannot build a bear proof structure. NO time and we're tired of trying.
This looks like a natural end to my line of genetically meat spot layers. An end that is out of my hands.
My conclusion is that if you have a high incidence of blood spots and think you can breed it out, you will be disappointed! It is a trait that, in my opinion, should mean you NEVER breed those hens or use the original rooster (since I do not know if it is passed through the male or female side of the equation).
Sigh. I am seriously bummed out.
