I harvested another duck egg this morning bringing my total so far to 2. I still had a dozen and half chicken eggs from the store and decided to do a side by side taste test. 2 nearly identical skillets, started at the same time w/ just enough canola oil to prevent sticking. As the duck egg was larger I went w/ 2 chicken eggs. The first thing I noticed was the color of the yolks. The chicken egg yolks were yellow as usual but the duck yolk was almost orange. I slowly fried the eggs until medium w/ the white completely cooked but the yolks just starting to firm up around the edge but a syrupy run still to them. Right before plating I gave em all a pinch of Kosher salt and grind of fresh black pepper.
End result? No contest whatsoever! The store bought eggs while what I have become accustomed to fell flat while the fresh duck egg made my taste buds sing.
I feed my Quack Pack hen scratch & deer corn mostly that I scatter in their yard to let/make them forage. To every 100 pounds of that I add 50 pounds of laying pellets in 2 pans to minimize waste. They also get fruit and veggie scraps, acorns, a bit of old bread plus any bugs or grubs I digged up during the warm weather and whatever gets bagged when I mow our lawn. Lately the mower stuff has been hardwood leaves and nuts w/ some greens. I also save egg shells to crush and add to their feed as a calcium supplement.
They free range in an "L" shaped yard some 15' x 50' then 20' x 30' with a pair of 4' diameter kiddie wading pools. Every other day or so one pool is drained, rinsed and refilled w/ fresh water. I keep 5 gallon buckets at the corners of my house to collect as much rain water for this as possible. That task is more work than just opening a tap but I know the water is just water sans the chemicals the water treatment place adds.
Happy ducks make better eggs which make for a happy redneck!
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