Test Yourself: Egg Identification Quiz

Duck, Chicken, and Pullet Eggs in a bowl

Can you identify which is a duck egg and which is a chicken egg? It’s arguably a trick question: there’s one duck egg and two chicken eggs…really.  The very small egg is a pullet egg, from a young hen (pullet) who is just beginning to lay.

Ok, so identifying the duck egg is easy; it’s the one with the enormous yolk. You knew that, right? Duck eggs have tougher shells than chicken eggs, too, which makes it more challenging for ducklings to hatch (but if your duck egg is knocked off the back of a chair onto the carpet, it may survive unscathed…not so for chicken eggs – this we know from personal experience). Duck eggs are especially rich and creamy and make amazing custard and baked goods. We also eat them just like chicken eggs: in omelets, fried, scrambled. They’re great, regardless of how they’re prepared.

We think each egg is a beautiful, wondrous thing: delicious, nutritious, and under correct conditions, capable of producing another chicken or duck. Think about how, in 21 days (chickens) or 35 days (Muscovy ducks) a fully-formed chick or duckling emerges from that egg…and in about 5 months (chicken) or 8  months (Muscovy) that chick or duckling will be grown and beginning to lay their own eggs. Marvelous!