What are the Differences between Chicken and Duck eggs?

     

What are the differences between chicken and duck eggs? Most people are wary of duck eggs because they think they might taste "weird", or gamey. Well, depending on what the duck was eating, their eggs could fulfill that suspicion. However, the same rule applies to chickens. 

For example, if I were to feed my chickens onions and garlic, their eggs would taste like a watered down onion. I think that we have all tasted an egg that either smelled or tasted fishy. A few ways that eggs can obtain that fishy-taste is either by feeding the chickens flax seed/meal, or by feeding fish-meal. The trade off with flax is that it boosts omega-3 content, but makes the egg less palatable:( 

You can probably draw your own conclusion as to how fish-meal makes eggs taste fishy:) 

All that said, feed affects taste, and taste affects perception. 

What are the real, nutritional differences between duck and chicken eggs? 

        

While I won't be talking about quail and goose eggs, I think this chart gives a good representation of the wide spectrum of eggs. 

For those of you who like to bake/cook with eggs, an average rule of thumb when using duck eggs is 2 duck eggs to 3 chicken eggs. While this ratio could (or could not) stretch your math skills, the "pay-off" that I have heard about duck eggs is their ability to transform baked-goods (for the better). Since there is double the amount of fats in duck eggs, that translates into (let's use a brownie, for example) a rich, creamy brownie. Sounds good, doesn't it? 

While I have never met anyone who was allergic to chicken eggs (although I do know people who don't like eggs in general), duck eggs can remedy the situation. Chicken and duck eggs have different kinds of proteins/protein structures, which affects the way the body's enzymes break the proteins down. While one person may not be able to break down chicken-egg protein, they probably could eat duck eggs and have no problems (there are always exceptions, of course). 

Another example that is similar is lactose-intolerance. Some people who can't drink cow-milk can drink goat-milk because of the structure (even strength) of the proteins. 

All in all, eggs (whether they be quail, chicken, duck, goose, ostrich, ect...) are one of the most nutrient packed foods on the planet. If you ever find yourself not knowing what to eat next, choose the incredible edible egg!