Wild Moon Cottage is a small working homestead in the pristine Ozark Mountains. We have dairy goats, poultry, organic herb and vegetable gardens, a start of a tiny fruit orchard, several black walnut trees, wild berries and fields of wildcrafting goodness. We raise our own milk, our own eggs, much of our own medicine and food. I do laundry by hand, make my own vinegar, candles, soap, bread, cheese ........ For a living I am an artist and herbalist. My goal for myself and our homestead is to be as self sufficient and self sustaining as possible.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Egg Mystery Solved

I hope !

The white eggs are duck eggs. And the Buff Orpingtons do lay brown eggs, just a tiny bit lighter then the Reds and Rocks, but still plenty brown enough to look brown.

Several things conspired to confuse me (which isn't difficult) the main thing being that the only other duck we ever had (Clover, Mother rest her) laid very big white eggs that were smoother shelled and very obviously different then the hen eggs.

The Fawn Runners (Lilly, Lola and Lizzie) lay white eggs just a little bigger then our hens (about the size of large white eggs at the store) and they're rougher shelled like the hens as well.

The whites of these white eggs are very thin and the yolk is a bit paler then the hen eggs. I've been baking with them all along and thought they were duck eggs at first but then things happened and here we are.

To be sure I had to separate the ducks from the hens and see. When spirited, there were no white eggs at all but when the ducks went back in with the hens we found a white egg on the floor on the henhouse. And we've never found a white egg in any of the nest boxes. only on the ground or the floor.

So, the conclusion (I hope) is that all our hens lay brown eggs (just as they should) except the Araucanas which will lay green and blue. And ! we like duck eggs.

4 comments:

Phill said...

So funny - I've been reading a poultry book, and yesterday I was learning about the differences between duck and chicken eggs. Not that I would be able to tell them apart, mind you. LOL

Peggy said...

I had the same problem when we first started out. Took me awhile to figure whos eggs were whos

Granny Sue said...

I've never worried about which chicken laid what. As long as we have plenty of eggs, I'm fine. When the quantity drops, I try to figure out why. It can be so many things! Like changing their feed, or they got scared by kids or a dog, or they've got a bug of some sort and need medicine, or the days have become too short and we need to put a light in the coop, or the light has burned out. They can't tell us, so we have to figure it out. Then if there is no good reason, I start checking. If you can't lay two fingers between their hipbones, they're not laying because there's not enough room for an egg to exit. At least that's the general wisdom although we've been fooled a time or two.

But duck eggs! Now that is interesting. I don't think I've ever tased one. Lucky you!

oldcrow61 said...

lol, glad you finally found out who's laying what. I've often wanted a couple of ducks but heard that you can't house ducks and chickens together and could never seem to get around to building a duck house. It sounds like you house yours together, is this so??