Friday, November 10, 2017

The Virtues of Ducks


Ducks may of done me wrong but I have an idea they might be back in the future. There are some great benefits to raising ducks according to research. My timing for raising duck was poor so I'll wait a while, think things over more, and I would not be surprised if they don't return in a few years from now when the rabbit and chicken self-sustaining set up is running more smoothly. Until then, I'm going to do some more research and some serious thinking. 

  These are the points so far that have me thinking duck:

 (a.) Duck lay better than chickens in winter. Just learned that ducks often begin to lay in February so maybe I was a bit hasty in getting rid of them except I desperately needed their coop and realistically, I'm not ready for them.  Since that is after the winter solstice and light is increasing, I'd guess that is why the timing.  So I'm going to think and watch my chickens to see if I need duck eggs to fill in a gap. 

(b.) Ducks have a larger egg yolk than chickens but when I measured Sasha's egg yolk and one of my Rainbow hen's they were equal in size but they lay extra large eggs. Keep in mind that the bulk of the nutrition in an egg is in the yolk. That is why a chick or duck forms in the egg white and the yolk is they food source.

 (c.) Duck eggs are alkaline and chickens are acidic. That is a biggy. It is one of the reasons why we have goat milk because it too is alkaline so adding duck eggs would be a really good combination.  

(d.) Duck eggs have 6 times the Vitamin D and 2 times the Vitamin A than a chicken egg, more protein too. Other than that pretty much the same as a chicken's egg in nutrition. With having to take 5000 units of vitamin D a day to stay at the lower end of normal and my husband 1000 units that could mean we could go off of supplements part of the year or at least reduce the amount.

(e.) Duck eggs have twice the cholesterol that chicken eggs do but have more Omega 3 fatty acids so don't be turned away. The whole cholesterol and its bad side affects is on debate right now. Cholesterol is far more complex than they first thought and cholesterol does play an essential role in the body. It is the basis of all hormones. Anyway you look at it more Omega 3's is a good thing.

(f.) Duck eggs are richer in Albumen which makes cakes and pastries fluffier and richer. 

(g.) Duck eggs are typically larger than chicken's.

(h.) They handle the cold better and forage better than chickens. I can testify to those two things.

(i) Duck egg shells are much thicker and I mean much thicker. It takes a pretty good wack to open them. This gives them a longer shelf life of six weeks in the refrigerator. They will keep up to six weeks in the refrigerator. As a side note of interest, the shell is much smoother than a chicken's. If you have ducks and chickens in the same pen, this is a way to tell the eggs apart if both lay the same size of egg like ours do.

As for flavor, we prefer chicken eggs slightly over duck eggs but there is not a huge difference in them. So taste is not what pulls me back to considering ducks again in the future. What keeps pulling me back to raising ducks is that their eggs leave a more alkaline atmosphere in the body. Cancer feeds on a acid environment and with it so prevalent in our society, that is a big deal. We definitely need to start changing our diet more in the alkaline direction. The other important factor is that we did not loose a single duck to predators last summer and fall. We did loose quite a few chickens. We have the last two years. I read in one site that raccoons are a duck's main problem. We definitely have those, just look at the claw marks by the latch on our chicken coop. Then there is the down. Something interesting I discovered when processing nine ducks of several breeds so stay tuned. 

2 comments:

  1. I have ducks. I keep about 15. They are a Rouen/Pekin cross and I love them because they're cute, and I keep them mostly to control the slug/snail population in my cattle pasture, which is partially swamp. If you have a lot of snails in your pasture you end up with liver flukes in your cattle. Since I've added the ducks we've had a significant reduction in liver flukes. So, I'm getting what I want from my ducks. But, I want to argue a bit with the idea that ducks lay better in winter. So far, and this is only my 3rd winter with ducks, they pretty much lay zero eggs in the winter. They will start to lay exactly 6 months after they hatch, so there will be a few eggs from those first timers if that happens in the winter, but the 1 year olds and older have not laid for me any time except May-August. Just my 2 cents.

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    1. Thank you so much for sharing. I wondered if they truly laid in the winter which is one of the big reasons why I would want them. As for liver flukes, we don't have the slugs in our pastures. We live in Wyoming and it is just too cold plus a high plains dessert.I'm glad the ducks are helping you in a natural way.

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