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

Indian Runner Ducks

Adult Fawn and White Runners

Indian Runner ducks are named as such as it was believed they had originated from India. They first hit English soil in the 1850’s and were admitted into the American Standard of Perfection in 1898. It wasn’t until 1901 that importers acknowledged that the ducks originated from Southeast Asia, not India. By then the name had stuck.

Baby Fawn and White Runners

Indian Runner ducks are unique from other domestic breeds as they stand upright and do not waddle, they run. A light weight duck, about 3¼ to 4 pounds, this breed was widely used as proficient weeders and snail eaters in fields. Southeast Asian farmers would have them walking fields during the day eating waste rice, weed seeds, insects, slugs and other bugs. At night they were put up in bamboo pens where the farmers would collect the eggs in the morning and release them to another field for cleaning.

Adult Chocolate Runners

The utility of the Indian Runner as a working duck can also be seen in its egg production and meat it has to offer. For its thin size, it has a surprising amount of meat and was common on tables in Southeast Asia and even on ships as a living source of food where they were known as “Baly Soldiers” or “Penguin Ducks”. Indian Runners took the place of what chickens are today as they laid many more eggs. Asian cultures introduced unique uses for duck eggs including balut, where an egg is partially incubated before eating, and salted eggs, where the egg is put in a salt solution or salt mud until the salt has permeated the entire egg as a preservative agent. However, over 80 years of selecting for color, shape, and stance, but not egg production, has caused their laying abilities to trend downwards to where they are now only average in laying ability. Our data shows that Runners currently lay about 100-180 eggs a year.

Baby Chocolate Runners

Today, Runner ducks have other uses other than field cleaners, egg layers, and pets. Runners have a personality we classify as “nervous” and have a habit of staying together in a flock - where one goes, the others do, too. Because this type of behavior resembles the flocking instinct of sheep, they are used to train herding dogs.

Baby Blue Runners

We offer 4 color variations of Indian Runners: Black, Blue, Chocolate, and Fawn and White. The Black and Chocolate Runners breed true, meaning if you breed a Chocolate Runner with a Chocolate Runner you will get a Chocolate Runner, but the Blue does not. We have two pens of breeders in order to hatch Blue Runners. One pen has Black Runner males on Silver females. The other pen has Silver males on Black females. This gives us 100% Blue colored Runner ducks.

Adult Black Runners

Due to their utility, unique stance and varied coloring, Runner ducks are a very popular bird year-round. They lay a decent amount of eggs, are smaller than the average duck, and require minimal maintenance. If you are looking for a versatile and self-sufficient duck, the Indian Runner would be an excellent choice for any flock. 

Baby Black Runners

Breed	Temperament	Weight	Egg Production	Mothering	Bluish Eggs	Egg Size
Indian Runner	Nervous	3.25 - 4 pounds	100-180/year	Poor - Fair	70%*	65-80 grams
Fertility	APA Class	Foraging Ability	Conservation Status	Our Show Quality	Flying Ability	Origin
84%**	Light	Very Good	Recovering	Average	None	Indonesia

*Chocolate Runners have a 75% chance of laying bluish eggs while Fawn and White Runners only have 37%.
**Chocolate Runners and Fawn and White Runners have a 86% fertility.

Khaki Campbell

The Khaki Campbell was first bred in the late 1800s by Adele Campbell in Gloucestershire, England. She had crossed her Fawn and White Indian Runners with Rouens in order to make a breed with exceptional egg laying abilities with larger bodies. Wanting the then popular buff color, she tried to breed her original Campbells with Penciled Runners. She did not get the buff color she wanted, but the color she got was similar to the khaki color used in British army uniforms so the ducks became Khaki Campbells.

The newly dubbed Khaki Campbell was introduced to the public in 1898 and made its way to the United States in 1929 thanks in part to Perry Fish of Syracuse, New York. They became a part of the American Standard of Perfection in 1941, despite the fact their numbers had languished for several years. This changed in the 1970’s when the Khaki Campbell population increased due to social movements to return to the land and duck egg demand increased due to Vietnamese immigrants after the Vietnam War.

 

The Khaki Campbell is a light weight bird, around 3½ to 4½ pounds, and a very prolific layer. In 1920 Aalt Jansen from the Netherlands started breeding Khaki Campbel
l imported from England. With careful breeding and testing, Jansen was able to produce a strain that averaged 335 to 340 eggs per duck per laying year. With a flock of 50,000 that is 16.75 million eggs per year which was extraordinary at the time. The Jansen flock was eventually picked up by the Kortlang family in England. John Metzer has visited the Kortlang farm and our own Khaki Campbells have some Kortlang blood in them.

Jansen Farms Letter Header April 15, 1978

Breed	Temperament	Weight	Egg Production	Mothering	Bluish Eggs	Egg Size
Khaki Campbell	Nervous	3.5 - 4.5 pounds	165-240/year	Good	<5%	75-85 grams
Fertility	APA Class	Foraging Ability	Conservation Status	Our Show Quality	Flying Ability	Origin
87%	Light	Very Good	Watch	Fairly Good	Maybe	England

Pekin Ducks

Pekin Ducklings

The Pekin duck has a long history with records in China going as far back as the 1300s. It was introduced to Great Britain in 1872 and then the United State in 1873. It has since taken over the US market as the go-to commercial meat duck.

The Pekin was bred for its meat, but can be considered a very good egg layer, too. Averaging 8 to 12 pounds in weight, it can lay 150 to 200 eggs per year, making it a great multi-purpose duck.

They are typically processed at six to seven weeks of age with its breast filet being about 21% of the carcass. As such, it has become a very popular commercial duck with a fast growth time and excellent feed conversion (only 2.4 pounds of feed per pound of live body weight gain). In culinary circles, it is the main ingredient for roasted Peking duck.

Female and male Pekin

The dinner table is not the only place the Pekin has become famous. The Aflac duck is a Pekin which originally came from our farm and the
was also the inspiration behind Donald Duck.

We have two names for our Pekin: the Pekin and Grimaud Hybrid Pekin. The Pekin and the Grimaud Hybrid Pekin are the exact same bird, exact same price, just under different names. We did this because some people know what a Pekin is, but not a Grimaud Hybrid, while others may want the Grimaud Hybrid specifically.

The Grimaud Hybrid is named as such because we purchase day-old breeders from Frimaud Freres in France every four months. It is called a hybrid since the Grimaud Hybrid is produced by crossing two strains of Pekin, one strain bred for high meat production and one strain bred for high egg production. By crossing females from the egg laying strain with the males from the meat production strain, you hatch a lot of ducklings that can be grown for meat.

Outside of the commercial market, advertisement, and entertainment industries, the Pekin is a very popular duck among kids and 4-H groups. It does well as a meat class bird at the county fair and is an amazing addition for any backyard hobbyist.

Breed	Temperament	Weight	Egg Production	Mothering	Bluish Eggs	Egg Size
Pekin	Calm	8-12.25 pounds	150-200/year	Poor	<2%	90-100 grams
Fertility	APA Class	Foraging Ability	Conservation Status	Our Show Quality	Flying Ability	Origin
89%	Heavy	Fair	Abundant	Meat Class Only	None	China

Information from our Duck Comparison Table

Buff Ducks! What are they and Where are they from?

William Cook is the father of the Buff duck. Born in 1849, he specialized in Orpington chickens and ducks, named after the town his farm was in, Orpington, Kent in England. At the time the buff color was popular as it was the same color as the waistcoat of the Royal East Kent Regiment. Wanting to capitalize on this, William started breeding Cayuga, Runner, Aylesbury, and Rouen ducks together in order to produce a buff color.

In 1897 William introduced the Buff Orpington duck. It was a medium sized duck, ranging from 6 to 7 pounds. It was considered a great all-purpose duck as it’s meat offered a decent sized breast in 8 to 10 weeks and could lay about 200 eggs a year, making it a good year-round layer.

William brought the Orpington buff duck to America in 1908 and showed it in the Madison Square Garden Show in New York City. In 1914 it was admitted into the American Standard of Perfection as simply Buff, making it the first breed to be named by only its color.

Today the Buff is a threatened breed. The Livestock Conservancy’s 2000 census has identified 793 breeding Buff ducks with only 11 people currently breeding them. It is still prized for its coloring and dual-purpose flexibility. In fact, many believe the buff feathers are easier to pluck than the white feathers of more popular meat birds.

We offer the Buff ducklings typically from mid-February through November each year. They are a calm, beautiful duck that is very popular.

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Want to know how to take care of your ducklings? Read our series of posts about what you need to know!

Brooder and Bedding

Water and Waterer

Feed and Feeder

Heating

Other Items to Consider

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Breed	Temperament	Weight	Egg Production	Mothering	Bluish Eggs	Egg Size
Buff	Calm	5-6.25 pounds	130-180/year	Fair	20%	80-90 grams
Fertility	APA Class	Foraging Ability	Conservation Status	Our Show Quality	Flying Ability	Origin
85%	Medium	Good	Threatened	Average	None	England

Information from our Duck Comparison Table