I thought this topic particularly interesting because I recently started using free range, vegetarian diet, organic eggs... I realized that while with regular eggs I'd find a blood spot in about 1 out of 100 eggs... with the organic or even just chickens raised on a vegetarian diet, the bloods spots are in about 50% of the eggs... I'm not about to throw out 50% of my eggs. Initially the blood freaked me out, but I've just started picking it out because I'd much rather have the blood spotted hormone free eggs than eggs produced with chemical chickens
Natural v. Unnatural... Blood or artificial hormones... Hmm. I'll take healthy and pick out the blood.
Personally I use Egglands Best, which are hormone free, vegetarian fed, and I almost never find blood spots. I may have to throw out one egg out of 100 if that. If 50% of my eggs had blood spots I'd find another farm/vendor, etc. It doesn't have to be an either or situation. You can have healthy without the blood.
Kathi
I never used to have a problem with blood spots -- I mean, yeah, they're kinda gross, but it's not that big of a deal once it's all mixed in. Then I cracked into a bloody egg while suffering from morning sickness and just about lost my breakfast. Now I think I'm doing well that I can eat eggs at all!
Personally I use Egglands Best, which are hormone free, vegetarian fed, and I almost never find blood spots. I may have to throw out one egg out of 100 if that. If 50% of my eggs had blood spots I'd find another farm/vendor, etc. It doesn't have to be an either or situation. You can have healthy without the blood.
Kathi
I was actually using Egglands Best when I realized 6 out of the dozen had blood in them. Bad batch, perhaps? I've tried three different brands at Target and I've gotten that percentage in most of them. My roommate and I did a compare/contrast last week because she got me started on the whole "healthy" eggs thing... and I asked her about the blood. *Shrug*
No because the sight of one will make me vomit, I wouldn't want to make someone eat something that makes me sick to my stomach with out them knowing it.
SIL called me back, she's been teaching all day. She said the blood spot is actually from the hen. That is passed when the yolk is being formed. It isn't a sign that the egg is bad or anything is wrong with it and it is perfectly fine to eat.
She did say many people do prefer to just toss the egg because it can look gross.
Personally I say do what you feel comforable with.
http://www.incredibleegg.org/egg-facts/eggcyclopedia/b/blood-spots
This debunks a lot of the speculative comments being left today.
The "white stringy stuff" is called the chalazae. For those of you already considering it "creepy" this won't help! It's basically the umbilical cord for the egg.
I did not know that! I've always thought it was gross 
.
I felt bad but tossed an egg the other day with a double yolk! All I could do was think of the twin chicks they would have been! LOL! Oh man, I need help! Haha!
I am pretty sure I am misunderstanding you but I just want to make sure. You don't think the egg yolks become chicks do you? If you eat a yolk you are not eating anything that would have been a baby chick! These eggs are not fertilized. It is just simply empty eggs since they ovulate like we do. But if the eggs were to be fertilized, then the yolk would feed the growing chick inside the egg. That is why the yolk is so rich in nutrients, since it's meant to feed the chick.
Ooops -- I'm wrong about the fertilization part. Just Googled and found this:
Can you eat eggs with blood spots?
Eggs with a visible blood spot on the yolk are safe for consumption. The spot can be removed with the tip of a knife. Blood or "meat" spots are occasionally found on an egg yolk. These tiny spots are not harmful and are caused by the rupture of a blood vessel during formation of the egg. Blood spots do not indicate a fertilized egg. Mass candling methods reveal most blood spots and those eggs are removed, but even with electronic spotters, it is impossible to catch all of them. If desired, the spot can be removed with the tip of a clean knife prior to cooking. These eggs are safe to eat.
From the Egg Board
Of course we can eat those eggs and it's not gross at all!
Blood is just proteins, nothing unhealthy, not contamination and nothing is wrong with the eggs.
If we think that the blood belongs to the chicken, I can tell you that here in Portugal there is a very traditional dish of rice and chicken, that actually uses the blood of the chicken to flavor and color it: Cabidela de galinha. It's not that I like it, but people have been eating that for centuries.
It's very understandable that we may find it repulsing, but that is just a cultural matter for us. Massai people survive essentially from the blood and milk of their goats.
My point of view as a nurse is that it is unreasonable to throw away those eggs, that is just a form wasting resources (too much people starve) and it's not really a sanitary or health issue. I don't think we should think "I can afford it I can do what I want", we should just reason...
This is a subject that seems to really divide people. I've even known folks who refuse to get egg white on their fingers, feeling it is so gross. Having a farm and raising chickens and selling eggs for many years I have heard a lot. First of all, blood in the egg is not a sign of fertilization. (The factory-farmed hens never even see a rooster, and yet occasionally a blood spot slips by the candling process.) It's merely a ruptured capillary as the yolk is being formed.
As stated before, if you are personally grossed out, a simple flick of a knife or spoon removes it. Secondly, the chalazae is not actually an umbilicus, but rather nature's clever method of centering the yolk in the egg. It helps, along with the hen who frequently turns the egg in the nest, to prevent the developing chick from adhering to the shell as it forms.
This is the case whether the egg is free range, organic or vegan raised, or battery raised in solitary cages.
My most freaky experience has been the rare egg that is laid, sans shell. It is really weird to pick up an egg from the nest and find it encased in only a tough membrane. Those, I did not use as the shell, though porous, does provide protection to the egg inside.
Like a previous poster, I feel much more comfortable eating my own home grown, home butchered food that what is found commercially.
But that's life and I am afraid I am becoming an anachronism in today's world.
I remove the chalazae as they never mix in, and I don't like the unmixed white pieces in my food.
Blood spots in my flock seem to increase in the older hens, so if you get larger eggs (often laid by older hens) your chance goes up.
If a little spot in an egg bugs you, please don't try blood sausage. 
I still dont care what the "egg expert" says, my great uncle raised chickens yrs ago, and will never use the blood spot eggs, I still will always believe his explaination of the fertilized egg, He had a rooster get loose too mant times, hence the blood spot eggs occassionally coincedendly <(spelling) when the rooster got loose.
I don't care what the egg people say, if an egg has blood in it I don't use it because it's gross.
I also use Eggland's Best and still sometimes find an egg with a blood spot-thought just a few times a year. Just this past Sunday, when making pancakes, I found one. I always crack an egg into a small bowl first, so it's easy to check and toss, if needed.
I felt bad but tossed an egg the other day with a double yolk! All I could do was think of the twin chicks they would have been! LOL! Oh man, I need help! Haha!
I am pretty sure I am misunderstanding you but I just want to make sure. You don't think the egg yolks become chicks do you? If you eat a yolk you are not eating anything that would have been a baby chick! These eggs are not fertilized. It is just simply empty eggs since they ovulate like we do. But if the eggs were to be fertilized, then the yolk would feed the growing chick inside the egg. That is why the yolk is so rich in nutrients, since it's meant to feed the chick.
Up until I read your comment adevag, and went googlin', I thought the yolk was the chick...LOL..no, really I'll be doggoned if ya don't learn somethin' new e'erday!
I felt bad but tossed an egg the other day with a double yolk! All I could do was think of the twin chicks they would have been! LOL! Oh man, I need help! Haha!
I am pretty sure I am misunderstanding you but I just want to make sure. You don't think the egg yolks become chicks do you? If you eat a yolk you are not eating anything that would have been a baby chick! These eggs are not fertilized. It is just simply empty eggs since they ovulate like we do. But if the eggs were to be fertilized, then the yolk would feed the growing chick inside the egg. That is why the yolk is so rich in nutrients, since it's meant to feed the chick.
Up until I read your comment adevag, and went googlin', I thought the yolk was the chick...LOL..no, really I'll be doggoned if ya don't learn somethin' new e'erday!
Yes, I love the days when I learn something new too. I can't imagine eating an egg thinking it was a baby (or embryo) chick...
I didn't realize what a can of worms I was opening!! Like cs_confections I always crack each egg into a small bowl first.
As I said in the beginning, I follow this rule because it is part of being kosher. However, even if not, I could never eat an egg with blood spots. If that makes me wasteful, then I am wasteful. I have to be able to feel good about what I eat.
Kathi
Interesting topic....guess all of you who won't use eggs with blood spots or remove the white stringy things had better stop eating at restaurants or buying any type of food products that have eggs in it. I would bet that commercial bakeries and any other processing facility that makes food products that contain eggs or restaurants making those Sunday morning scrambled or over easy eggs do not toss eggs with spots of blood or take the time to remove the white stringy things.
Out of sight out of mind.
Peridot said:
"guess all of you who won't use eggs with blood spots or remove the white stringy things had better stop eating at restaurants or buying any type of food products that have eggs in it"
Peridot, exactly what I was thinking! For me it is out of sight, out of mind. Weird egg things don't bother me if I don't see it myself, I don't know why! LOL!
OK, you guys asked for it! I hadn't intended to post this, but cannot resist.
Years ago I had a customer come wanting farm fresh eggs. I wasn't home at the time, so my elderly father handled it. We were one egg short of what she wanted, so my dad had her wait while he went to check the hens. Unfortunately, I had allowed one hen to set, (to incubate her eggs). I had marked her eggs with a wax marker so I would know which not to take. Since she frequently turned them in the nest, most of the markings had worn off. I could recognize them for they looked worn and old, but Dad didn't know this.
When he told me, I felt sick. That egg was two days away from hatching. It was a new customer so I couldn't call and warn her. I still have nightmares of the imagined scene... Like maybe cracking an egg directly into a bowl as the cookie dough mixed? I do know there is a woman somewhere today who will NEVER use a farm fresh egg again.
OK, you guys asked for it! I hadn't intended to post this, but cannot resist.
Years ago I had a customer come wanting farm fresh eggs. I wasn't home at the time, so my elderly father handled it. We were one egg short of what she wanted, so my dad had her wait while he went to check the hens. Unfortunately, I had allowed one hen to set, (to incubate her eggs). I had marked her eggs with a wax marker so I would know which not to take. Since she frequently turned them in the nest, most of the markings had worn off. I could recognize them for they looked worn and old, but Dad didn't know this.
When he told me, I felt sick. That egg was two days away from hatching. It was a new customer so I couldn't call and warn her. I still have nightmares of the imagined scene... Like maybe cracking an egg directly into a bowl as the cookie dough mixed? I do know there is a woman somewhere today who will NEVER use a farm fresh egg again.
Oh, that's so sad for both the woman and the baby chick. If it was only two days away from hatching could the chick have survived?
I doubt it would have survived. I know you are not even supposed to help remove the shell when the chick is pipping. It takes a little while and it is hard to resist helping. (Actually, I hope the WOMAN survived the trauma!)
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