maybe the egg held twin yolks, and one evil twin killed the other?

Wow, I was expecting a tiny clot and you posted a picture of a crime scene. I'm almost hoping that I get such an egg so that I am forced to test my paleo mettle against it.

Cave Girl part vampire. Eat bloody steak. Eat bloody egg and beat chest proudly.

Did some googling, and it looks like this could be the result of an injury or stress to the chicken, or a ruptured vessel breaking off before the shell forms. It isn't bad, just gross. Most of these are caught during inspection.

I couldn't have eaten it - but my raw fed dogs sure wouldn't have had a problem taking care of it for me ;-)

Yes, that has happened to me. If I get local eggs from the farm, I always crack them into a small dish before I use them because the eggs aren't candled.

It happened to me the other day in my pastured eggs. I didn't suck it up and eat it, but I should have.

jeez kinetic. a "graphic egg photo" warning would have been nice. lol.

I thought it was gonna be like a spot or something. good grief.

I occasionally get small clots (eww, shudder, why does the word "clot" have to sound so disgusting?) in my eggs and I'll eat them if they're tiny enough.

However, THAT is a massacre. I'm impressed that you kept your gorge down long enough to take a picture. =P

OMG !! Is that Justin Bieber?!!

I found a little baby duck in my (duh) duck eggs once. I freaked out and tossed it into trash before I could really debate whether or not I should eat it.

It seemed like a waste because I eat duck eggs, I eat duck, why not eat combination duck and duck eggs? Cultural taboos notwithstanding, it would probably taste just fine.

This was an abused egg. So sad. Obama needs to do something about this.

just got egg's from a small farm down the road. had blood in one of the egg's cooked it up and ate it not to bad!!!.. has a iron taste. but hell I eat blue rare steak's...

Yes, I've seen this before. When I was in high school I used to package eggs for a local farmer. I would toss out the eggs that looked dirty on the outside or ones that were cracked or unusual looking. Had a few break open that were even bloodier than this. Can't say it's real common of course, but not extremely rare either. Took me about 10 years after quitting that job to enjoy eggs again. I prefer eating just the raw yolks, blended in with some coconut milk. I have tried, but I just don't enjoy cooked eggs in any form, maybe I have a sensitivity to the whites.

So my father is the President/CEO of a company that specializes in egg products/egg white powder/related egg stuff. I sent him this link and here was his answer:

"Sometimes an egg has a blood spot or a bloody white - the hen had bleeding in the oviduct before the shell is formed. The pasteurizing had no relation to the interior egg condition and the USDA would consider this an inedible egg."

I was talking to him on the phone later today, and he also mentioned that sometimes an egg will have a fluorescent green-ish tint to the white part. This is the result of a pretty awful bacteria, called Pseudomonas bacteria, and should also not be eaten under any circumstances.

So bottom line, if the egg looks funny in an extreme way (like this), don't eat it.

This also relates to standard good egg breaking practices: always break each individual egg one by one into a separate bowl before you add it to anything else (even just a frying pan with another egg in it.) If the egg turns out to be inedible, the last thing you want is to have spoiled an entire batch of Paleo pumpkin muffins or an egg bake.

--Sarah

Eww - eggs, blood - remind me of the opening of Dexter.

I have heard of a whole chicken fetus being in cracked open eggs before.

MMMMM extra protein.

HOLY SH*T That's awesome^2

I don't know what I would have done... maybe cower in a corner for few hours...

or bronze it.

Can we bronze that?

...

derp.

Coooool. I grew up eating pastured, fertilized eggs and many had blood clots in them, but that is epic. During those years I also ate several different sizes of chicken fetus. #morehardcorethanyou

Just happened to me today 24.5.12. have never seen anything like it before. Not as bad as your picture. Was nice to know it does happen. I already had half a dozen eggs in the bowl so scooped it out and went on to cook the others. wishing I had of just thrown them all out and started again though and can only hope we dont get sick.

I think the egg was just fertilized an the sack broke open. My family raises hens and after years of eating our pastured eggs daily, I am not ashamed to say that I have eaten eggs this bloody. I turned out fine (?)

This is completely normal. Don't let this scare you away from pastured eggs as this can also happen with any egg. I personally don't eat bloody eggs, but I don't see a problem with it, if it doesn't bother you.

Just made my eggs in a basket this morning & mine looked almost exactly like that. I figure wth, I'm eating a baby animal anyway. Why wouldn't I expect a little blood every once in a while? Tastes fine to me. My 3 year old didn't care either.

We raise chickens and this is normal. Unusual, but normal. Egg factory eggs are screened for these types of things, but this is to be expected once in a while from a small farm or back yard operation. My understanding is that usually blood comes from the hen, not the egg. The hen's egg making system can get a tear in it and the blood can get trapped inside the egg as it forms.

I wouldn't eat it though. Nothing dangerous, just nasty, imho.