Thursday, May 03, 2012

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.

14 comments:

  1. Your duck stories make me wish we had a few. Looking forward to seeing Ronna's babies!

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    1. I love having ducklings around but of course we have to keep a lid on numbers, since we're not eating them! :)

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  2. This is exciting. Much better than tv. Hope all goes well.

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    1. Muscovy ducks make very good mothers and usually do well hatching out their eggs. Fingers crossed! We are cleaning out the duck nursery this weekend :)

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  3. When my family first came to the prairies in 1905, they gathered wild duck eggs as they didn't have chickens. Grandma showed my aunts which eggs were still good to take for eating.

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    1. That is so interesting, Red! And smart. Sophie the dog has occasionally showed up with a wild duck egg, but I don't think she's really into nest-raiding.

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  4. Hard to decide which one is better; ducklings or duck egg muffins? I think I'd go with ducklings. I'm such a wimp. I don't think I would be able to eat eggs that I know their mom :(

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    1. Pasha, we get SO MANY duck and chicken eggs! If we weren't selling/eating the eggs, we'd have 1,000 ducks and chickens. :) Now, I am finding it increasingly difficult to eat chicken, but I'm okay with inhaling the eggs. ;)

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  5. Fingers and toes crossed for the little ducks!

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    1. Thanks Sandra! Last year it was a piece of cake, so hopefully this year will be the same.

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  6. You don't have to bother with the recipe, just send some already made!

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  7. Anonymous8:54 pm

    I know your life with all those animals is a lot of work, but from my vantage point it looks like bliss. Those muffins look delicious! Now you've got me in the mood for baking.

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    1. I've been on a baking kick lately after a long absence. Trying to fatten myself up for...er... summer?

      And hey, they didn't' put your comment in the Spam folder this time!

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Thank you for all your comments, which I love to read!