"What are those little spots in my eggs? Why is my egg white cloudy?"

These are two questions you may ask yourself when you crack open one of our eggs.  There will be differences from store-bought eggs, and if you didn't know better you might think the egg was bad.  So read on if you're one of our egg customers or simply interested in the characteristics of farm fresh eggs.

Those little small red or brown flecks near the yolk - These have one of the worst sounding names you're ever heard when it comes to eggs: meat spots.  Yes, they're called meat spots.  There is another similar condition called blood spots, which doesn't sound any better.  But don't freak out!  They won't kill you, and it's ok to eat an egg with a meat spot.  If it really bothers you, you can pick it out with a spoon or something.

There is a good description of meat spots at thepoultrysite.com

It isn't possible to detect some of the smaller meat spots when we candle the eggs for quality, so you might get one.  Our eggs are more likely to have meat spots than store-bought eggs because we have older chickens.  Meat spots become more common as the hen ages, and we have some hens that are as old as 5 years.  Along with more meat spots, the hens also lay fewer eggs as they get older, so a typical industrial egg operation kills the hens as soon as egg production and quality decrease.  A hen in an industrial egg operation is killed before it reaches a year and a half.  While we aren't against turning an old hen into chicken soup, we like our hens to live quite awhile past their second birthday.  For this reason we will tolerate the occasional small red fleck as long as you can, too. 

Here is what the Egg Safety Center says about meat spots:

"Blood or meat spots are occasionally found on an egg yolk and are merely an error on the part of the hen. They’re caused by the rupture of a blood vessel on the yolk surface when it’s being formed or by a similar accident in the wall of the oviduct. Most eggs with blood or meat spots are detected by electronic spotters and never reach the market, but even with electronic scanners it’s impossible to catch them all. Eggs with blood spots and meat spots are fit to eat."

So don't worry about meat spots. 

Cloudy whites - When the white of the egg looks like it has been slightly cooked and is cloudy, there is nothing wrong with the egg.  A cloudy white is actually a sign of extreme freshness.  We typically see cloudy whites in eggs that have been laid in the last day or two.  The cloudiness is caused by carbon dioxide gas trapped inside the egg.  As the egg ages, this gas is released and the white clears.  So there's nothing to worry about with a cloudy egg white.