EWWWwwwwww ducks.
That’s the first thing we hear when we tell people we have a significant flock of ducks. They’re dirty. They stink. They poop. A LOT. They require too much effort.
We’ve heard it all.
Despite all of that ducks have made their way onto our little foreststead and will likely never leave. The reasons are pretty basic. They are hearty. They lay eggs year round. Their eggs are rather large and filling. Their eggs are packed with nutrition that I need, specifically B12. They are excellent foragers. They are easily trained to go to specific locations – in our case, the coop to the back fenced in yard.
We accidentally stumbled onto ducks in 2021. Everyone was still in panic mode. We thought having meat ducks on our farm in Loudonville, Ohio would be a smart move. We learned a lot with that first group of Pekins – mostly how to not kill them, how easy it was to raise them, and the many benefits of their endless nutrition-packed eggs.
Our current homestead features Cayuga, Silver Appleyard, Khaki Campbell, Golden Layer, and one Runner duck that we adopted from a gal in town. We also have Muscovy, however, they are not technically considered ducks. They are somewhere between a duck and a goose, but we treat them as ducks, so they’ll get their own photo gallery below.
I originally purchased Cayuga ducks because I was hoping for black eggs. Out of the four Cayuga ducks we have, only one lays a true black egg. Over the year as laying picks up her ink tends to run out. By fall her eggs are a light grey color. They are also a beautiful duck breed with black feathers that sometimes look green or blue in the sunlight.
A friend gifted us her Silver Appleyard ducks in 2025. They are a dual purpose meat and egg bird that lays over 200 eggs a year and is excellent at foraging. They are beautiful large ducks that we’re thrilled to have on our foreststead.
Muscovy are technically not ducks, but they act very much like ducks. They do not seem to speak the same language as our ducks and seem to not get along with anyone other than their own sisters and the turkeys. They do not quack, which makes them great for homesteads in town. They also have some strange body language that seems to communicate their feelings about a situation. They do not lay as much as our other duck breeds, but they do lay about 150 eggs a year. They LOVE hatching babies and they’ll hatch every egg if you let them. Muscovy are also a dual purpose bird with red breast meat that is said to have a ribeye appeal. We haven’t tried it, so I will have to get back to you on that one.
Muscovy are amazing flyers and will spot your neighbors pond and fly to it. We clipped our birds wings last year, but decided not to continue doing it because they are very hard to get in the barn at night and we wanted them to be able to escape coyotes, raccoons, and fox.
Muscovy are notorious for roosting up high to avoid being killed by predators. Every other breed of duck can be easily wiped out in one night. Even as our chickens were being dragged away by coons, our Muscovy flock has remained untouched.
While we only have four Muscovy girls at the moment, we recently added seven babies that we hope will add color to our Muscovy collection. They are chocolate and white and black and white.
Hearty Ducks
When the neighbors chickens stop laying, our ducks keep going. They love the snow almost as much as they love the rain. The cold temps don’t slow them down on egg production. With 20 ducks we still expect nearly a dozen eggs a day, even through winter.
Duck Egg Health Benefits
We originally purchased ducks as a meat staple, but quickly realized the health benefits from the eggs. Packed with vitamins such as B12, one duck egg is not only filling, but just about all you need when it comes to some hard-to-come-by vitamins. Packing 90% of your daily B12, one duck egg will give me energy for the entire day.
Baking with Duck Eggs
Rich, flavorful and the size of three chicken eggs, duck eggs are a great resource for bakers.
