Get Your Duck Eggs!

Waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. That’s what we did for 4 months. We thought they would never lay an egg. Perhaps they’re all male? Maybe they’re hiding the eggs? Maybe they’re unhappy? Of course, we thought it was something we were doing wrong, until one chilly pre-dawn morning, I crept, headlamp, coveralls, boots and all, into their nesting area and found not one, not two, but three golden eggs! Okay, they were actually white, but they were golden to us! Our girls were just young-- not unhappy, not undernourished, and certainly not males.

            When we rushed them inside to sample the new goodies and tapped one on the edge of the pan, nothing happened.  I gave it a few more good whacks, and finally got a crack thick enough to dig my finger in to pull the shell apart. Those are some tough shells. If you’ve tried our chicken eggs, you know those are tough to crack, but these will give you a workout! The reason they’re so tough is that the fresher an egg is, especially a duck egg, the thicker the inner membrane (that whitish part that sticks to the inside of the shell) is. Our ducks are also very healthy and happy, which strengthens the shell.

            But what do you do with a duck egg? Scrambled, sunny side up, over easy, over medium, over hard, poached, hard boiled, coddled, omleted, benedicted, merengued, etc. Anything you can do with a chicken egg, you can do with a duck egg. But wait, there’s more! Because of the higher albuminous protein content of a duck egg (bet you didn’t think you’d get a science lesson today!), they can take your baking to a whole new level. Literally. The extra protein offers more structure to your baked goods, creating a fluffier and loftier goody. From sweet to savory baked foods, duck eggs win hands down. How does a quiche (with Farm Girl jalapeno sausage), paired with a slice of homemade angel food cake sound tonight? Or custard. Or pound cake. Or cupcakes. The possibilities are endless.

Meet the Professionals

by Ashley

Many of you have tried our eggs—with those gloriously orange yolks that sit up high, those whites that are actually white, and those shells that you have to hit extra hard to get a good crack out of—and you’ve met your farm girl, but you haven’t met the real hard working women behind the scenes: Allow me to introduce you to the professionals, the specialists, or as we lovingly call them, “the ladies.” These are the chickens (and duck!) that lay those brown, green, blue, and white eggs for you every week. Though we haven’t named every one of them individually, we do have Owl the Ameraucana, Rosalind the duck, and the Red Heads, our Red Star layers.
The blue tarped structure you can see in the picture is usually referred to as a “Chicken Tractor.” Instead of keeping the ladies cooped up in small, wiry cages where they can’t stand, turn around, scratch for bugs, take dust baths, and establish a natural pecking order, we keep them in this fine invention. As you can tell from the picture, they have a pretty sizeable residence where chickens can be, well, chickens. Twice a day, I meet the ladies at the front of the coop, where they come running to see what goodies I’ve brought them. In my hands, I either have some kitchen scraps, supplemental feed, or some bugs I’ve uncovered in the garden. While they enjoy their snacks, I provide fresh water, collect eggs, and clean out nesting boxes. But probably the best part of their day is when I move the tractor. When they see me pick up the rope at the front, they all line up like school children at lunch and await the new bugs they get to unearth.

We have been very intentional about the breeds of chickens we keep. We have chosen our breeds based on hardiness, egg laying ability, egg color variety, and rarity. The newest members to the coop are Dominiques. Purebred Dominiques are one of the oldest breeds in the US and are on the critically endangered list. We hope to eventually get a rooster so we can continue to breed this fine line of chickens. Our Ameracaunas are the most beautiful (but don’t tell the others!) with bluish gray or black and white feathers. They also happen to lay the most beautiful eggs—the blue and green eggs you find patterned throughout your dozen. And then there are the ducks! We keep Khaki Campbell and Ancona ducks for those of you who are either allergic to chicken eggs, want more protein in your eggs, bake up a storm, or who just want to try something a little out of the ordinary. Enjoy.