What is the Difference Between Peafowl Eggs and Duck Egg Sizes?

When raising many species of fowl together, you will almost always end up with a "mystery" egg in an unexpected place. Perhaps the most important difference between peafowl eggs and duck eggs are their contents. Fertile peafowl eggs will hatch out a peachick, while a fertile duck egg will yield to a duckling. If you don't want to wait for the answer to hatch, you can use size and other comparisons to determine the contents of your egg.

  1. Size

    • The most obvious difference to the average eye is size. If you have a known duck egg and known peafowl egg to compare the mystery egg with, the determination is simple. This is not usually the case, however. Most egg size charts compare eggs with a large chicken egg. The large white eggs from your grocery store are fairly standard in size, shape and color, so they make an adequate universal comparison. Duck eggs are slightly larger than chicken eggs. They are usually about 2 inches in diameter and 3 inches long. They weigh approximately 2 to 2.5 ounces. Peafowl eggs are most comparable in size to turkey eggs. They are much larger than chicken eggs and just slightly larger than duck eggs.

    Color and Coating

    • Duck eggs are usually off-white, and some can even range to having a light green hue. Color usually depends on the species of duck. Duck eggs also have a waxy coating on the shell. The shell is thick and shiny and feels rubbery to the touch. Peafowl eggs are light brown in color and sometimes speckled. Peafowl eggs are very close in color to turkey eggs as well.

    Location

    • Where the egg was found can also be telling. It is not uncommon for fowl to share nests when they are grouped together. Ducks, however, tend to ignore nesting boxes. If you find an egg in a semi-hidden twiggy nest by the water, you have most likely stumbled upon a duck nest. The female duck will lay an egg every one to two days, and not sit on the nest until about 15 eggs have collected. Peafowl hide their nests under bushes or in brush piles. They have a slightly smaller clutch of eggs--only eight to 10--before they sit on the nest. The nest will be a depression scratched out in the ground and lined with grass.

    Contents

    • If all else fails, you can incubate the eggs and see what hatches, provided the egg was fertile to begin with. Place a bright light behind the egg to illuminate the contents. If it is clear, the egg is infertile. If you break it open and see a dark orange yolk, it is most likely a duck egg. If you can make out a form in the egg, look at its beak and feet. Ducks have rounded bills and webbed feet, whereas peafowl have pointed beaks and chicken-like feet. If the egg is old enough, you may be able to identify it by what it contains before it even hatches.