Everything You Need to Know About Duck Eggs

First, let’s get the obvious questions out of the way…

Can you eat duck eggs?

I was surprised when a follower on instagram asked me this last week. In the end I think she was confused about what WAYS to eat them, but even so, I was surprised that duck eggs are seen as so unusual or foreign to many folks. In short, YES!! you can definitely eat (and LOVE) duck eggs.

Why are duck eggs not sold in stores?

I think the main reason you can’t find duck eggs in your local grocery store is simply supply and demand. Chicken eggs are the more common, well-known egg and they’re what folks expect to find at the store. Also, duck eggs are much larger and harder to use in recipes that are written with a standard-size chicken egg in mind.  So stores supply what their customers are wanting.

Why do chefs prefer duck eggs?

Duck eggs are higher in fat than chicken eggs, so their taste is a bolder, richer taste, which tends to shine in many dishes. No wonder chefs tend to prefer duck eggs over chicken eggs.

Are duck eggs good to eat?

Yes, duck eggs are good to eat. They’re good for you and they’re a very rich taste, making your baked goods extraordinary.

Now, I’ll share all the pros and cons on each topic surrounding duck eggs…

Duck eggs taste different than chicken eggs.

Folks love the richer flavor that duck eggs offer. (Sidenote:  Duck eggs are less watery than chicken eggs, so be careful when frying them, because an overcooked duck egg tends to be rubbery.)

Pro: Many people prefer the taste of duck eggs, describing them as “richer” tasting than chicken eggs. But if I’m scrambling duck eggs, I will always mix them in with chicken eggs. Then–when they’re mixed with the chicken eggs–I enjoy the slight different taste of the duck eggs.

Pro: I also love the taste of duck eggs in baking. But, there’s a “con” to that too… (See below.)

Con: I personally prefer the taste of chicken eggs. It might be more the consistency than the taste, actually. Duck eggs are more percentage of yolk to white and more “rubbery” for lack of a better word.

Duck eggs are bigger than chicken eggs.

Pro: You get more food per egg, for sure.

Con: While I love the richer taste duck eggs provide in baking, it’s a quandary often to know how many to add. When the recipe calls for 2 eggs, 2 duck eggs will be too much. If 3 eggs are called for? I may use 2 duck. But usually my solution is to snag an odd combination of eggs, like I may dig around my egg bin for 2 of my smallest chicken eggs (probably called “medium size” in the store-bought world) to combine with 1 duck egg if the recipe calls for 3 eggs total.

Con: The sheer fact that they’re larger also means you’ll be consuming more calories, fat, and cholesterol when you eat one duck egg compared to one chicken egg. (Read more on this below.)

Con: Of course, there’s one more “con” to their size… the larger the egg, the larger the surface area that your sweet ducks can waddle all over them and cover them in… you guessed it… duck poo. I have never once–never–pulled a clean egg out of our duck house. I sincerely don’t know how they manage to coat the eggs in poo. I mean it’s like they roll their eggs in their poo for sport every morning before we arrive on scene.

Con: I truly don’t know if this is true on all farms. In fact, it wasn’t true with our first flock of ducks. But our current flock eat a lot more than our chicken do. Our chicken garner a lot more nutrition by free ranging than our ducks do. The ducks often range as far and wide as the chicken do… often even all together for a large portion of the day… but for some reason the ducks rely more on the feed that we give them than the chicken ever do.

Duck eggs may be more allergy friendly. Or not.

Pro: I’ve read that eggs are one of the most common allergy problems for children. If a child (or adult) in your family faces this problem, you may be pleasantly surprised that duck eggs don’t cause any allergic reactions for him/her. There’s no guarantee, of course, but many people who are allergic to chicken eggs find that they can eat and enjoy duck eggs. *

Con: In our family, the allergy thing happens to be a con. One daughter is allergic to them.

* This is where I insert that legal language/mumbo jumbo that I am not a nutritionist or a doctor and I am not making any medical claims here, only stating what I’ve experienced myself.

A follower on instagram, maryrenee16, reached out to me recently and explained her allergy to duck eggs, which was quite severe…

“Very painful stomach cramps and eventually vomiting. I have never had a food allergy so I had no idea what was happening. I will say oddly my body knew it before my mind did. I would almost get sick just collecting the eggs or when I handled them for cooking. I thought I was just being a city girl and needed to put my big girl pants on. But we have chickens as well and I had never had that reaction to collecting or handling their eggs. So I dove deeper into what an egg allergy can look like. Once I eliminated the duck eggs from my diet, I was no longer getting sick. I just had no idea! They were so amazing to bake with- I even made ice cream with the duck eggs. It was soooo good!”

Ducks are productive in the winter. Kinda.

The big reason I wanted ducks was this amazing “fact” that I had heard that ducks are productive all winter long, laying eggs often during the long months that our chicken would be “dormant” in the egg category. (Yes, I know if I provide a source of heat in the coop the chicken would be more productive, but I just can’t justify that over my fear of a possible fire on the farm.)

Pro: Ducks are more “winter weather hardy” and can lay eggs during cold weather when chickens are too busy conserving body heat to lay many eggs.

Con: Sadly, in our experience over the past 4 years, with 3 different flocks of ducks, we get very little duck eggs in the winter months. We’ll be surprised with one duck egg here and there, maybe once or twice a week, throughout the winter, but that’s it.

Duck eggs pack more of a nutritional punch than chicken eggs.

Both size-wise and nutrient-wise, duck eggs come out on top. They offer a wide range of vitamins and minerals. In fact, you get almost an entire day’s worth of vitamin B12 in every duck egg, which is needed for red blood cell formation, DNA synthesis, and healthy nerve function. (More about bit B12 benefits here.)

pro:  Because duck eggs are larger than chicken eggs, they offer more protein, omega-3, and vitamin D than a chicken egg. Even if they weren’t bigger than chicken eggs, duck eggs provide more nutrients than chicken eggs, ounce for ounce.

con: their yolks are larger. That means that the eggs are a more concentrated source of calories, fat, and cholesterol. Depending on their size, you could get twice as many calories and three times as much cholesterol from a duck egg.

Duck eggs vs. Chicken eggs? Bottom line: they’re both good for you.

Both chicken and duck eggs are loaded with antioxidants, which some research suggests could even reduce the risk for cancer.

Both chicken and duck eggs contain mostly monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, the good type of fats.

But I will say, Ducks give you a whole lot of entertainment in between the eggs…

More info for you:

Raising Chickens vs. Raising Ducks

Training Your Dog Around Free-Ranging Chickens and Ducks

Natural Egg Dying

Homesteading in Modern Times

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Just days ago, we were knee deep in buckets full of sap that we were turning into delicious syrup every night. Now the beautiful auburn jars have been lined up on shelves in the root cellar and sap gear is being cleaned and stored away in the barn.

You’ll love this post if you’d like to know How to Make Maple Syrup, Step-by-Step.

Or maybe you’d like to know how we know when it’s time to STOP tapping trees.

Just days ago, we were shoveling out from a foot and a half of beautiful fluffy white stuff. Now there are spring melodies on the farm.

Just days ago, the ground was still  blanketed with white. Today there are spring melodies on the farm.

There’s no denying that spring has slowly but finally reached New England.

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My morning has been filled with beautiful melodies. There’s the melodious tapping of the sapsucker, on his favorite maple tree, and the goodbye calls of the junkos perching among the budding branches, a sure sign that it’s time for them to hear north. Two male robins filled long minutes with loud bantering to stake out their claim in my backyard so they could each gather food for their nests full of young. But amidst all of those melodies, I just stumbled upon a crazy great deal on a whole different kind of melody. So cool I thought I’d share the news with you right away. (Plus I wanted a good excuse to share some pictures of my feathered friends. And, of course, throw in that cute picture of my favorite bovine again.)

Here in our rural small town we have little-to-no reception. Of any kind. No cell phone towers. No clear radio signals. But we do (thankfully!) have great internet connection. While listening to the radio, in the traditional way, is very hit or miss in our house, and always ladden with at least a little static, listening online is a good choice. But I never knew I could listen to millions of songs on Amazon! In fact, maybe this is new. I don’t know; I just know it’s new to me.

And I stumbled upon this fact that, for a limited time, everyone can totally try it out totally free for a full 30 days. From what I’ve read, it’s more than 2 million songs on-demand, and always totally commercial and ad free.

For the most part, I prefer the music of the birds in the trees outside my door. And I love hearing Mr. Big Fat (our rooster) calling out, or the ducks’ silly bantering waddling by a window. In fact, I don’t even mind the crazy loud chatter of the adorable baby birds that always grace our home this time of year, fresh out of the incubator.

But I do need some Motown or some good country music sometimes to help me work my way through a giant pile of dishes that need to be washed or a hamper full of laundry that needs to be folded.

Heck, when we are working down by her stalls, Scout likes some tunes too.

So, for the next 30 days at least, Scout and I are gonna see how many of the millions of songs on Amazon Music Unlimited we like. For free. I mean at “free,” you can’t go wrong.

When you find me dancing among the cow patties, well, then maybe there’d be something going wrong.

If you too have trouble with radio connections in your neck of the woods, or if you’d just prefer on-demand, commercial-free tunes, you might wanna check out Amazon Music Unlimited. Here’s the link: Try Amazon Music Unlimited 30-Day Free Trial.

Meanwhile, if you too have a wonderful variety of birds to watch in your neck of the woods, be sure to sign up for my newsletter below. Because once you do, you’ll enjoy immediate access to my exclusive subscriber-only library of resources. In there, you’ll find a bird ID page you really need to print and enjoy filling out with a child this week.

The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
    they sing among the branches.
He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
    the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
He makes grass grow for the cattle,
    and plants for people to cultivate—
    bringing forth food from the earth. Psalm 104:12-14

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Remember to click here and  Try Amazon Music Unlimited 30-Day Free Trial. It’s totally free, with no commitment. Amazon just thinks their music plan is so great they wanna see if we like it. If it’s free and offers over 2-million dancing opportunities with Scout, I figure I can’t go wrong to give it a try.

But after you sign up for free music, pop back here and sing up for my weekly newsletter too. As soon as you sign up for my newsletter below, you can enjoy access to my private library of resources. In there, you’ll find a bird ID page you really need to print and enjoy filling out with a child this week.

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The lake who stretches her clear waters out northward from the base of our slopping property supports an array of wildlife and picture-perfect sunsets…

Our magic little lake attracts majestic morning mist.

The fog surrounds any neighbors we happen upon during an early-morning skiing session.

Numerous aquatic flowers stretch out through the calm summer afternoon ripples while paddle boarders and kayakers enjoy the serenity.

And our little lake is a perfect backdrop for nature study in our homeschool.

But some inhabitants–the loons, whom we learned more about this summer–come in minuscule supply.

In fact, loons define the term “territorial bird” to an extreme. The 400 acres of water that our monochrome feathered friends call “home” each summer–the lake waters that stretches out northward from the base of our driveway–aren’t expansive enough to host more than one pair of loons.

The larger bodies of crisp, cool water that are spotted all across New Hampshire’s Lakes Region can support hundreds of loon pairs. In fact, alcoves on Lake Winnipesaukee alone provide nesting spots for more than 280 of the feathered, polka-dotted couples. By the way, if the curious lake name, a Native American name meaning “beautiful water in a high place,” sounds familiar to you, maybe you’ve watched  What About Bob?

But if you’re a local, you know Bill Murray never filmed anywhere near Winnipesaukee. (And the deception is compounded as you watch the characters refer to the town of “Winnipesaukee” throughout the movie, which of course makes no sense since the name itself means “water,” and everyone knows Winnipesaukee is a big, beautiful lake, not a small town.)  The truth is, the leaves were turning fall colors in New England that year before the producers were ready to start filming the movie, so a lake in Virginia provided the warmer temperatures they needed as a summer backdrop for Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss.

Another nearby New Hampshire lake, Squam, was truly the sight of a classic movie that even starred some of the very breed of birds my daughters and I studied this week. Mind you, you may remember Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn a little more than the loons, but all were important characters in On Golden Pond, filmed on Squam Lake in 1981. Squam doesn’t boast the hundreds of pairs of loons that the giant Winnipesaukee can claim, but it does home a few dozen more pairs than our diminutive lake.

Along with the fact that they’re not good at sharing a small body of water with other loons, these spotted fowl are also not good at walking. God designed their feet placement–far back on their body–to be perfect for swimming, but it happens to be impossible for walking. If loons are ever spotted on dry land, they are seen pushing themselves along on their bellies, which is surely why they were originally called “loons,” meaning “lame.”

But there’s nothing lame about their majestic, dashed and dotted, beauty on a lake.

And there’s nothing lame about nature study in our homeschool–at least not this week. Our local loons gave one daughter plenty of material for a new page in Our Backyard Book. If someone in your family would like to learn more about a bird in your backyard, feel free to enjoy this free printable resource–a Backyard Book page that’s truly for the birds.

Any day now the loons will be heading south, and we will move on to a new page for Our Backyard Book. Then nature study in our homeschool–and our next Backyard Book page–may focus on fisher cats, since my daughters believe a fisher cat was the eerie soloist screaming outside their bedroom window last night.

Be sure to follow along right here, on SoulyRested.com, for more nature study resources!

As soon as you do, you can snag another FREE printable that will get you started on an unbelievably easy, unlimitedly rewarding journey of nature study with a child. And even the least science-oriented parent (or grandparent) ever can dive right in.

And love it.

Really.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. Romans 1:20

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Read More About Nature Study …

How we Create a Family Book About Our Own Backyard

Helping a Child Discover what They’re Passionate About

3 Simple Steps to Get Kids Excited About Nature Study

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Yesterday, our usually quiet, docile fields were alive with noisy chaos.

Teams of people were working to cut down trees and clear a pasture for a wonderful young dairy cow, on it’s way. But amidst the chainsaws and sawzalls buzzing and branches and voices rustling, one daughter heard the faint cry of a different baby. Maybe one of the recently downed trees had held his home.

She followed his petite song and found the sweet little fledgling hiding under ferns on the forest floor.

She gently cupped her hand around his meager frame and searched for me, knowing I would be her enthusiastic comrade, eager to do whatever we could for the tiny crooner in her palm. Eager to know how to help a baby bird who had lost his home and his momma.

She held him gently while we researched how to help a baby bird.

We learned we would only be doing him harm if we attempted to care for him, and (we were surprised to discover) it’s illegal to care for a wild animal.

We also read that, contrary to what we had thought, our scents would not deter his parents from still caring for him, and if we could return him directly to his own nest, that would be best.

Update on the field-clearing, fence-raising efforts: It was a work of love, for sure. But well worth it, considering these beautiful current inhabitants. (Click there to meet Scout and Selah, but be forewarned, your heart might melt at the sight of a young new cow momma loving on her beautiful newborn calf.

Since whatever tree must have housed his home was now being cut into firewood, we decided the best solution was to make him a new home and pray his momma would find him there. So next we researched how to make the best human-attempt at a makeshift nest. We found a container with drainage holes in the bottom and lined it with soft material: yarn and tissues.

Then we placed him securely in a tree near where she found him.

We watched for a while, then walked away hoping our diminutive efforts would be enough.

I was thankful. Thankful for her sweet caring instincts when confronted with the disadvantaged. Thankful for a chance to, once again, study nature with my daughter–the same little one who would proudly fill up pages in our family’s Backyard Book (especially ones about birds) and traipse with me through the woods with her journal and pencil in hand on our Nature Journaling days.

Thankful for my now-grown daughter’s decision to trust me with her concern; ask me to again learn with her, side-by-side; and allow me to work with her to devise a solution. Together.

This morning, our make-shift nest was empty.

Hopefully his song reached his momma’s ears… Hopefully he asked for her help… And hopefully he’s soaring high on his own strong wings today.

Click below to hear me explain what we did when we found yet another tiny baby bird under a tree, near our farmhouse.

If you’d like to download my free ebooks, including one all about nature study with a child, simply sign up for my weekly-ish enewsletter here then download anything and everything you’d like from my loaded Resource Library.

“Point your kids in the right direction—when they’re old they won’t be lost.” Proverbs 22:6 (The Message)

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