Duck eggs in baking

I have been using duck eggs in my baking lately, and have been pleased with the results. I think they make things rise a little higher. My neighbour told me that duck eggs make baked goods stay fresh longer, but I'm not sure if that's true or not!

I'm getting about a dozen duck eggs a week right now, give or take. They are generally a bit larger than chicken eggs, with harder shells, denser yolks and thicker whites. Taste-wise I think they are fairly similar to chicken eggs, but I know some people who don't like them, and some people who love them.

Anyway, today I made chocolate-chip orange muffins from Joie Warner's All the Best Muffins and Quickbreads. I thought I'd posted the recipe on this blog before but damned if I can find it, and I'm too lazy to type it out tonight! Suffice to say, they were very tasty, and a good excuse to eat chocolate in the morning.

Speaking of ducks, Ronna-duck is still sitting on her nine eggs and is being a very good Mum. She is less violent towards me than Eugenia was last year. Although she does cheap in protest, she doesn't struggle when I gently lift her off the nest every day to count the eggs beneath her. We seem to have stabilized at nine for the past week. The old beehive box I place over the nest to keep it contained has worked wonders! Ronna-duck has been adding feathers to her nest and it's looking very cozy now. I hope to get the baby duck nursery cleaned up this weekend. When the eggs hatch, we'll take the babies out to the "nursery" duckhouse in a bucket and Ronna can follow along behind us. That worked very well last year. 

I've been told that drakes can hurt or kill little ducklings, so we just keep mama and family segregated from the rest of the flock (but visible through a fenced run) until the littles ones are big enough to fend for themselves. Cross your fingers that all goes well with hatching!

Stay tuned for future duck happenings.