When we started raising ducks, we had one specific goal in mind: raise them until they laid eggs and then find out whether our son, who has a pretty severe chicken egg allergy, was allergic to the duck eggs.
We had so much fun raising them from babies to their move into our first duck tractor to getting to feed them as they grew up.
So we were just giddy when we got our first egg back in January. The eggs were pretty sporadic for a bit, but we are now getting 3-5 eggs from our 7 female ducks every day. (We had 10 females but lost 3 to a hawk.)
After many tests with my husband, we are about 99.9% sure that Isaac does NOT have an allergy to duck eggs! How cool is that?
We started testing him very gradually. First just having him touch the egg, then having him touch the inside of the egg, then putting a tiny bit of egg against his lip, then having him chew but not swallow the food, etc. (Remember please that my husband is a doctor. Don't just into allergy testing without advice from your own doctor.)
And then two days ago, our Isaac ate pancakes made with duck eggs with no reaction.
I don't know that he will ever want to eat a straight duck egg. And I'm fine with that. But I would love if we could make desserts and other things that he can eat. (Yes you can substitute for eggs with applesauce and baking powder but it honestly just doesn't taste the same. It's always decent. But never stellar.)
In addition, duck eggs have another fantastic positive. They are awesome for baking. I had heard this before, but I just had the opportunity to try it. The brownies I always make were amazing with duck eggs and so much fluffier than usual.
For this reason alone we plan to try and keep at least a few females on our farm. And if you are local to us, we'd love to sell you some duck eggs to try! We are selling them for $3 a half dozen / $6 a dozen! Let us know if you'd like to try some.
If you don't live by us, do a little research and find someone local to you that you can buy them from. I really encourage EVERYONE to find a local farmer that you can buy both your chicken and duck eggs from. And your meat too! Here is a post my husband wrote on what you are getting when you get animals raised the right way!
1 comment:
Yay! This is awesome news. I'm so excited for your family. Our 16 month old has a legume allergy. We know he reacts to peas and peanuts, but our allergist wanted to wait on testing other specific legumes until he was a bit older. We are all set to do it at 18 months and I will be over the moon if we can bring black beans or pinto beans back into our diet. I completely appreciate how excited you all must be to be able to use duck eggs!
Erin
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