Our egg laying hens summer in old campers we gutted and put roosts and nest boxes in. These make great protective, movable shelters. The campers are not moved daily since the hens are inside so little and since they range farther away from the camper, but we do move the campers and fencing to new areas as needed to give them good foraging. We breed and raise our own Americaunas which lay bluish shelled eggs. We buy day-old chicks of a good egg laying breed for brown eggs. Our chicken eggs sell for $3.50/dozen at the house, $4 if we take them somewhere.
We have a few Welsh Harlequin and Golden Cascade ducks as well as the muscovies which lay wonderful jumbo eggs in the spring and summer. They are $3/half dozen.
Our geese lay huge eggs in the spring. They are wonderfully sweet tasting, and some folks buy them to blow out and decorate. They are $1.50 each.
Below, left to right, are goose egg, chicken egg, and duck egg.
From Metzer Farms: Duck eggs are appreciated for a variety of reasons: richer flavor, better for baking, longer storage life and some people that are allergic to chicken eggs can eat duck eggs! In many ways, duck eggs are more nutritious than chicken eggs. Duck eggs have higher levels of vitamins and minerals than chicken eggs for 12 of the 13 nutrients we have listed in the comparison chart on our website.
The higher protein content of duck egg whites can make them rubbery if over cooked. The New Agrarian has good duck egg cooking instructions.
The Seasonal Chef gives the following recipes for duck eggs: Perusal of half a dozen Chinese cookbooks yielded these suggestions for preparing duck eggs. Craig Claiborne recommends simmering them for an hour, then cutting them into quarters, shell and all. For a more exotic-looking variation, try “tea eggs.” Cook the duck eggs for 8 or 10 minutes until hard-boiled, carefully crack the shell without peeling it off, then simmer them in tea for an hour. The result: a dramatically spider-webbed, hard-boiled egg that makes it clear to all who see that these aren’t just any old egg.
For an even more exotic version, simmer the duck eggs in a solution of 8 cups water, one-half cup soy sauce, a tablespoon of honey, a piece of tangerine peel, a leek stalk, a couple of cloves of garlic and a pinch of salt for 2 hours.
