Why aren't duck eggs commercially available in 99.9% of grocery stores?
Are ducks much harder/more difficult to raise than chickens?

Yelnick McWawa said:

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Why aren't duck eggs commercially available in 99.9% of grocery stores?
Are ducks much harder/more difficult to raise than chickens?

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I'm probably a perfect example of the big picture to your question. I opened this expecting something common with the poultry industry and you're talking ducks. Quail, Cornish hens, turkeys are a lot more common in the industry than duck in general. My guess is most production probably goes to Asia like a lot of our dark meat currently does anyway.

There's guys on here on the production side of the industry (I'm on the brokerage / retail side) who can probably speak to it better.

Having owned ducks I'm going to guess that it's simply due to the requirements of the animal. They aren't like chickens. I have 50 birds and I'd rather have 50 chickens than 5 ducks. Messy. Require facilities to keep their nostrils clear, etc. duck eggs are fine. But they aren't anything special over the lowly chicken in my opinion.

Used to have a coworker that sold duck and chicken eggs. I liked the duck eggs because they had a bigger yolk. Taste wise not sure there was a difference.

BrazosDog02 said:

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Having owned ducks I'm going to guess that it's simply due to the requirements of the animal. They aren't like chickens. I have 50 birds and I'd rather have 50 chickens than 5 ducks. Messy. Require facilities to keep their nostrils clear, etc. duck eggs are fine. But they aren't anything special over the lowly chicken in my opinion.

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Actually duck eggs have more nutritional value than chicken eggs (I'm not saying chicken eggs aren't healthy, just making a relative comparison).
The rest of your answer is about what I suspected though. Has to be the answer why they're not as ubiquitous as chicken eggs.

Thanks!

Yearly placement numbers for meat chickens is ~9B, inventory of egg laying hens is ~300 million. By comparison, ducks are in the range of 25 million. It's a tiny slice of the industry, amd the vast majority are located in Indiana.

Duck eggs have a more porous shell than a chicken egg and are more susceptible to salmonella.

AnSci99 said:

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Duck eggs have a more porous shell than a chicken egg and are more susceptible to salmonella.

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Well **** a duck, I didn't know that.

If you like duck eggs I'd check around at the Farmers Market. Have a few folks that have duck eggs at one of our local farmers market. Duck eggs have more protein and Omega 3's and also have a little richer yolk flavor. The cost more than chicken eggs though but there bigger. Typical range is $4 to $9 bucks a dozen pending on the person selling them

Also guinea eggs are pretty good as well. Good rich flavor as well.

That's a negative on that damn clown. No thanks.

BurnetAggie99 said:

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If you like duck eggs I'd check around at the Farmers Market. Have a few folks that have duck eggs at one of our local farmers market. Duck eggs have more protein and Omega 3's and also have a little richer yolk flavor. The cost more than chicken eggs though but there bigger. Typical range is $4 to $9 bucks a dozen pending on the person selling them

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Yessir, that's what I do. New Braunfels Farmer's. They're more expensive than the prices you've listed but I go once a month and enjoy them.

AnSci99 said:

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Duck eggs have a more porous shell than a chicken egg and are more susceptible to salmonella.

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From what I understand, they are slightly more porous but there's no real empirical evidence that they are more susceptible to salmonella. Porosity not withstanding, duck egg shells are thicker than chicken egg shells and keep for much longer.