406 COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING 



duct, whereupon blood is exuded with the albumen, thereby 

 making the white of the egg bloody-looking or streaked with 

 blood. It is generally caused by over-exertion or constitutional 

 weakness, and is not nearly so common as blood clots. Wherever 

 possible the poultryman should strive to find out the hen that is 

 responsible and to remove her from the flock. 



Fresh Laid Stale Eggs. — It sounds incredible that a fowl should 

 lay a stale egg, or a spoiled egg, but this frequently happens. 

 The condition responsible for this peculiarity is sometimes chronic 

 with certain hens, or merely occasional, and if the victims can be 

 spotted they had better be killed for Sunday's dinner. If not, 

 the poultryman will have to assume the burden of a tedious 

 explanation to the customer who is unfortunate enough to receive 

 such eggs. 



After the yolk enters the oviduct it is forced through this tube 

 by a circular movement or contraction of the muscles of the 

 oviduct wall, and at the same time receiving layer after layer of 

 albumen, and finally the shell, when it is ready for expulsion 

 from the body. At some stage in this development, which under 

 normal circumstances should only require about eighteen hours, 

 from the time the yolk enters the oviduct until the finished egg 

 is laid, this action ceases temporarily, maybe as the result of 

 fright or due to an injury, and the egg is held in the body of the 

 fowl for several days after it is completed. 



It must be remembered that the life germ, or germinal disk, 

 is complete when the yolk leaves the yolk sac, hence it is subject 

 to heat for its development into the embryo chick. If the egg is 

 held in the body, the life germ comes under the influence of the body 

 temperature and incubation begins, providing, of course, the egg 

 is fertile. If the egg is infertile, the results are not so disastrous; 

 the egg has a stale flavor, or maybe the contents are of a peculiar 

 color. In the fertile egg, when it is finally laid, the germ dies, 

 and immediately it starts to decay. Such eggs are called body- 

 heated eggs. 



There are other minor abnormalities, those of such rare oc- 

 currence, such as an egg within an egg, foreign substances within 



