Why Do We Eat Mostly Chicken Eggs?

When a recipe calls for two eggs, most of us know exactly what to reach for. Duck, goose, turkey and quail eggs are all edible, but chicken eggs became the grocery-store standard for a simple reason. Hens lay a lot of them, and they do it with relatively little feed and space.

People once ate whatever eggs they could find

Ancient Romans ate eggs from ducks, geese, pheasants and even peacocks. Coastal communities collected eggs from nesting seabirds such as gulls and murres. What ended up on the table often depended on which birds lived nearby and when they laid.

Some of those traditions survive. Duck eggs, known for their large yolks and rich flavor, are common in parts of Asia. Quail eggs appear in dishes from East Asia to Latin America, while goose eggs are still eaten seasonally in parts of Europe.

How the chicken pulled ahead

Chickens were domesticated from red junglefowl in Southeast Asia at least 3,500 years ago. Researchers believe the wild birds were drawn to early rice and millet fields, where they could forage for grain and insects near human settlements.

Wild junglefowl lay roughly 10 to 15 eggs a year during a short breeding season. Over generations, farmers favored chickens that matured earlier and laid more often. Advances in breeding, feed and flock management accelerated that change in the 20th century.

A modern commercial laying hen can produce about 280 to 320 eggs a year and may start laying at around five months old. Geese typically lay 30 to 50 eggs a year, while turkeys generally lay 70 to 100. Some ducks come close to chickens in egg production, but they generally need more feed, water and space.

The right size for the kitchen

Chicken eggs also happen to be a convenient size. It takes four or five quail eggs to equal one chicken egg. A goose egg can be two to three times as large. A chicken egg is big enough to fry on its own and small enough to measure out one at a time for a cake.

As supermarkets expanded, chicken eggs could be graded by size, packed in uniform cartons and shipped in large quantities. Cookbooks and commercial bakeries settled on them, too. Today, when a recipe calls for a large egg, it’s counting on the size and proportions of a chicken egg. After generations of farmers raising hens for more eggs, the kitchen and the grocery aisle both came to depend on them.