Duck Molt Drama, place your bets!

[BabyGotQuack]

Ducks have been molting for the last couple weeks. As luck would have it, before I realized they were molting, I freeze dried almost all the eggs I had, keeping only half a dozen (cause I wasn’t expecting the molt yet) & hubby cooked up some breakfast burritos with the 6. So we’re totally out of eggs.

Tomorrow is grocery day and I’ve got eggs on my list

(Anyone else feel like it’s the walk of shame?? To be buying eggs when you’ve got layers at home!!)

Anyways…. They do this to me every time! I check the coop before I leave, no eggs. I return home with my store bought eggs and bam! Eggs in coop!

I’m hoping my half dozen I’m buying tomorrow will reverse psychology those little sassholes into laying. It’s a small price to pay But who’s willing to bet??

Side notes, cause I know it will be asked, even though this post is just for funzies
-yes, I’ve upped their protein and been giving a little extra meal worms.
-yes, I could use my freeze dried eggs and actually did today to bake some banana bread. But, freeze drying takes a lot of time and I don’t want to break into my stash when not totally necessary.

 

[Ikslo]

You are not the only one to do that walk of shame. And sometimes it’s with gardening here, too! I absolutely hate to buy grocery store tomatoes during tomato season. And yet every year I am doing just that at random times when I should have had tomatoes. It’s just the way of things.

 

[BabyGotQuack]

You are not the only one to do that walk of shame. And sometimes it’s with gardening here, too! I absolutely hate to buy grocery store tomatoes during tomato season. And yet every year I am doing just that at random times when I should have had tomatoes. It’s just the way of things.

Same! You gotta reverse psychology those dang tomatoes too

 

[LtDanFan]

….I freeze dried almost all the eggs I had…

How do you freeze dry eggs???? Can you do this with chicken eggs too?? I’d love to do this because i can just imagine having way too many, giving them all away and then my girls turning into free loaders for a while just to spite me.

 

[BabyGotQuack]

How do you freeze dry eggs???? Can you do this with chicken eggs too?? I’d love to do this because i can just imagine having way too many, giving them all away and then my girls turning into free loaders for a while just to spite me.

Yes, you can freeze dry chicken eggs too!

It’s really easy, just takes a lot of time in the freeze dryer. I usually do about 6 dozen duck eggs at a time, you should be able to do a lot more chicken eggs cause they’re usually smaller. But I crack alllllllll 72, whisk them up and freeze dry them raw.

Then when I need to use them it’s a 50:50 mix of egg and water. For a duck egg it’s about 2 Tablespoons of each. I used them yesterday in my banana bread and it turned out great!

The first time we did eggs we did a blind taste test, I cooked up some of the freeze dried and some fresh and my husband couldn’t figure out which was which. The only way you can tell is by looks.

So much better than wasting or giving away those free loaders eggs

 

[LtDanFan]

That’s awesome. I dont have quite that many eggs and i would probably have to save them for a long time to get 72 eggs since my oldest ducks are barely 4 months old and my first group of house raised pullets have only just started paying their egg rent this week. But tell me more!!!

Yes, you can freeze dry chicken eggs too!

It’s really easy, just takes a lot of time in the freeze dryer. I usually do about 6 dozen duck eggs at a time, you should be able to do a lot more chicken eggs cause they’re usually smaller. But I crack alllllllll 72, whisk them up and freeze dry them raw.

Then when I need to use them it’s a 50:50 mix of egg and water. For a duck egg it’s about 2 Tablespoons of each. I used them yesterday in my banana bread and it turned out great!

The first time we did eggs we did a blind taste test, I cooked up some of the freeze dried and some fresh and my husband couldn’t figure out which was which. The only way you can tell is by looks.

So much better than wasting or giving away those free loaders eggs

ok, i need to know more. Where do i get one of these magical machines and can it be used for everything like they say? Do i then have to store stuff in the freezer then add water (dumb question in know but i can’t imagine freeze drying a steak and eating it without conjuring my visit to the aerospace museum and eating freeze dried ice cream from the souvenir shop).
This could be life changing for me lol.

 

[BabyGotQuack]

That’s awesome. I dont have quite that many eggs and i would probably have to save them for a long time to get 72 eggs since my oldest ducks are barely 4 months old and my first group of house raised pullets have only just started paying their egg rent this week. But tell me more!!!

ok, i need to know more. Where do i get one of these magical machines and can it be used for everything like they say? Do i then have to store stuff in the freezer then add water (dumb question in know but i can’t imagine freeze drying a steak and eating it without conjuring my visit to the aerospace museum and eating freeze dried ice cream from the souvenir shop).
This could be life changing for me lol.

So the only brand for in home use that I know of is harvest right and that’s what I have. I got mine at tractor supply but I’ve seen them at ace and Costco! You can also buy online right from harvest right.

And yes you can really use it for ALMOST everything. There’s some exceptions like honey, butter and pure chocolate. Super sugary or oily things take a long time to do and their shelf life isn’t near as long as the 25-30 years freeze drying lasts.

No you don’t have to store in the freezer! It’s pantry stable once it’s freeze dried. I’ve never done a raw steak but watched a video on it, while it did change the texture, it can be done! But let’s say you wanted to do a steak, throw it in the freeze dryer, it’ll probably take 24-48 hours. When done put it in a Mylar bag with an oxygen absorber and seal it. When you want to eat it, remove it from the bag and soak it in water for it to rehydrate and then you could grill it. Again, I’ve never done steak, just saw a video.

But I do tons of fruits and vegetables from my garden, eggs, milk, salsa, pasta sauce, rotisserie chicken, soups, bone broth, breakfast hash, candy, cake and even ice cream sandwiches!!

If you want I can share some pictures of some of my freeze dried stuff!