Cayuga Ducks

There is no definitive origin of the Cayuga, but traditionally it is believed that a miller in Duchess County, New York caught a pair of wild black ducks and decided to raise them for eggs and meat for both his table and the marketplace in 1809. It is then said that John Clark obtained some of these black ducks in Orange County, New York and introduced them to Cayuga County, New York in 1840 where the Cayuga got its name. Should the traditional origin be true, this would make the Cayuga the first duck originating from the United States.

The Cayuga was added to the American Standard of Perfection in 1874. A very hardy duck with great utility, they were very popular for meat purposes until the Pekin was introduced to the market in the 1890’s. Today they are considered a threatened species by the Livestock Conservancy.

Adult Cayuga Male

Cayuga are a medium weight duck, about 4¾ to 6 pounds, and have meat that is considered quite flavorful. Due to the dark pin feathers and the dark coloring they leave in the skin, however, the carcass is not as clean appearing as a Pekin. They can lay about 150 eggs a year with egg color ranging from black to light gray. Cayuga are quite docile and easily tamed making them excellent pets. While their plumage can be considered a greenish black, they shine iridescent green in the sun and start to turn gray or white as they age. Sometimes this change starts in one year and sometimes it takes several years for the white feathers to begin appearing. Interestingly, some flocks originating from the same parents will molt to white feathers sooner than others. We breed our Cayuga exclusively on our farm and sometimes at the end of some years we have a lot of whitish birds, and other years there are none. Therefore, change must be induced by something in their environment. What that something is we have not been able to determine.

Freshly laid Cayuga eggs

Breed	Temperament	Weight	Egg Production	Mothering	Bluish Eggs	Egg Size
Cayuga	Calm	4.75 - 6 pounds	130-180/year	Fair	<2%	75-90 grams
Fertility	APA Class	Foraging Ability	Conservation Status	Our Show Quality	Flying Ability	Origin
83%	Medium	Good	Watch	Excellent Color, Good Type	None	USA

Results of Duck Breeder Flock Culling

Originally posted by John Metzer on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 @ 12:37 PM

Last week we went through our Rouen, Cayuga, White Crested and Fawn and White Runner breeder flocks.  Each female was picked up and the distance between her pelvic bones was estimated.  This technique was shown in our last blog: Determining Which of Your Ducks Is Laying. I want to share the results with you.
The Fawn and White Runner flock had 405 females in it that were at 33% egg production (this means we were getting an average 33 eggs a day for every 100 females).  We put a fence down the middle of the pen, one side for the "keepers" and one side for the cull birds. After checking each female, we had 175 females in the "keep" flock and 230 females in the cull flock.  The next day the females in the "keep" flock layed 112 eggs which is a rate of 64%.  The females in the group that we will not keep laid 6 eggs which is a rate of 3%!

So by checking each female, we removed 57% of our feed bill and only lost 5% of our eggs!  As there are now fewer females in the pen, we will also use less shavings.  Of course we were able to remove some of the males, too.  As far as we know, there is no way to visually determine the fertility of a male but you can cull out any males that are less thrifty than the others, have bad legs or appear to have been picked on by other birds.
The results for the other flocks was just as impressive:

Cayuga start 49%, after culling: keep flock 66%, cull flock 7%

White Crested start 35%, after culling: keep flock 69%, cull flock 1%

Rouen start 43%, after culling: keep flock 66%, cull flock 7%

Mallard start 30%. after culling: keep flock 63%, cull flock 0%

Of all the breeds, the Mallards were the easiest to differentiate layers from nonlayers.  As you can see, over half the females were  removed and there were no eggs in the cull flock pen the next morning.

The picture shows the keep and cull flocks of Fawn and White Runners.  As you can see, there is very little difference in appearance in the two flocks.  You have to pick up each bird and check it.  It is basically a comparison with other birds of the same breed so if you have never done it before, check 10-15 birds and note the difference among them.  Then start over and remove those birds in which their pelvic bones are stiffer and closer together than the others.

In our next blog we will be addressing how to use the feed formulation program on our website. http://www.metzerfarms.com/FeedConversion.cfm.  Many times you cannot find feed with the correct level of protein.  This program will show you how much to mix of two different feeds to achieve the protein (or other nutrient) level you want to achieve.
Thank you! Enjoy your ducks and geese!