Though it was hardly a masculine name, I couldn’t help but refer to our male Cayuga as “Lisa Frank Duck.”
He may have looked like a simple black duck in the shadows, but as soon as he waddled into a shaft of sunlight, a dazzling array of rainbow hues burst across his glossy feathers. And like his take-a-second-look plumage, the Cayuga duck breed is deserving of time in the limelight. These ducks are useful, fascinating, and beautiful to boot!
A Bit of Cayuga Duck History
The origins of these beetle-black, black-footed and black-billed ducks is a little cloudy. The general consensus, though it is not substantiated andoften debated, is the Cayuga is an American breed derived from a wild population of Black ducks inCayuga County, New York(hence the name).
The males display the curled sex feather that is indicative of some mallard origins, however, so even though that feature doesn’t help clarify their genetic backgrounds, at least it makes the adults easy to sex.
They were raised on large farms as a premier meat breed until the light-feathered (and therefore, easier to process) Pekin punted it from its throne in the 1890s.
Related Post:Raising Pekin Ducks
That loss of popularity made Cayuga numbers spiral downward for several decades, but it seems this breed is (thankfully) not headed the way of the dodo. Formerly a threatened breed, the Cayuga got promoted to the “watch” list of the Livestock Conservancy — a hopeful sign that waterfowl keepers around the world are seeing the beauty and utility of this fascinating duck.
Cayugas on the Homestead
A source of huge, nutrient-dense eggs, companionship, meat, down, and manure, these birds have a lot to offer the homestead willing to give them a home.
Eggs
Duck eggs are huge, dwarfing even large-sized chicken eggs. When cooked, they make a firmer texture then hen eggs, making them perfect for baked goods.Cayugas lay about 100 to 150of these delectable delights in a year. Many resources will tell you that the Cayuga hen will lay black eggs, and while this is sometimes true, I imagine that many folks will share my experience and get olive-hued eggs instead.
然而,它们的美丽丝毫不减!如果你喜欢不同寻常的鸡蛋颜色,而且最后鸡蛋层是黑色的,那就趁它还在的时候好好享受吧。随着季节的推移,她的蛋会越来越轻,当她停止产卵时,蛋的颜色接近白色。
Related Post:Chicken Breed Guide
Unlike many domesticated ducks, Cayugas can be fairly good mothers and may brood their own eggs. There are few things cuter than the sight these shadowy-black, peeping ducklings following after their Mamma duck through the clover!
Meat
我从没杀过卡尤加人,所以我不能凭经验说。However,Slow Food USA报告说:“虽然很难清洗和准备,但它的肉质非常高,有浓郁的牛肉味。它的胸部虽然比其他更传统的鸭品种要小,但肉质多汁,深红色,味道复杂。”
雄性通常长到8磅,雌性在成熟时长到7磅左右。如果你真的屠宰了自己的鸟,考虑把它们漂亮的羽绒留作自己做的枕头。
Manure
鸭粪对花园是一种极有价值的土壤改良剂。与需要堆肥的鸡粪不同,鸭粪是“冷的”,这意味着它可以直接应用到你要滋养的土壤中。
Companionship
卡尤加是一只温顺、友善的小鸭子。虽然我是成年后才买的,但我一叫他们,他们还是会跑过来。这可能与它们的款待有关,但我更愿意认为它们见到我很高兴。
Well-kept Cayugas may live for longer than a decade, so the relationship you build will be one to last. As they age gracefully, your Cayugas will start to turnwhite with every molt,resulting in a dappled duck that looks like shadows on the water. Their feet will also start to take on an orange tinge.
一些网站说他们很安静。我挠了挠头,耸耸肩,因为我的卡尤加母鸭很健谈,而且声音很大——甚至比我的跑鸭还大。我喜欢我的羊群发出的嘈杂声,但如果你期待一个安静的家园,也许你应该选择一些近乎沉默的番鸭。
Resources also say that the Cayuga is too heavy-bodied to fly and will happily stay close to home. Again, I shrug because I have personally watched one of my Cayuga ducks fly off into the sunset, never to return. To be fair, it was her first day on the homestead and she had been scared as we tried to transfer her from a dog crate to the duck house.
None of the other ducks made an escape attempt, but I would still recommend clipping the flight feathers of one wing on any new, adult duck that you bring home … just to be sure they stick around during the adjustment period!
Caring for Cayuga Ducks
养鸭是一项相对简单的努力,只要你有空间养它们。为你的卡尤加的羊群提供一个晚上睡觉的安全地方,觅食的地方,和干净的水,你将在未来的岁月里享受它们。卡尤加鸭也不一定需要池塘才能茁壮成长——只要确保在平底锅中为它们提供足够深的淡水,让它们的头能淹没,你就可以开始了。
Related Post:What Do Ducks Eat?
As a nod to its potentially wild background, the Cayuga is quite weather-hardy and happy to forage. If you have the space to allow your ducks to free-range and forage, they will be excellent at finding the bulk of their own food. If you need to provide the majority of your flock’s food, their needs are simple.
For an in-depth answer to that question, I wrote a long article about what to feed ducks —and you can find it here!这个问题的简单答案是,鸭子喜欢绿色蔬菜、谷物和幼虫。如果他们能找到食物,虫子就藏在旁边,时不时地在锅里放点简单的鸟食,他们绝对没问题。
Just make sure you don’t give your ducklings medicated chick food because they’ll overdose on it. And don’t give your adult ducks white bread or junk food. If you already know it’s bad for you, it is guaranteed to be bad for them!
Related Post:What to Feed Ducks Instead of Bread
If you start your flock from hatchlings, your ducks’ beginning days will need a little bit of extra care. Ducklings can be raised outside in mild weather within confinement provided they have a dry, sheltered area to sleep at night and during wet weather. Some people give their ducklings outside excursions starting at 3 weeks old but in any case, without a watchful hen, you need to be the one to keep them safe.
They won’t be waterproofed and able to stay warm until they have feathered out, so as long as they are fuzzy and cute, keep them out of the rain and cold. You can allow them to swim in a kiddie pool or the bathtub every now and again after about 5 weeks, but you will have to help them. Like human kids, ducklings will swim until they’re too tired to get out on their own.
然而,一旦它们长出了成年羽毛,它们就会很好地前往广阔的世界。有些人让鸭子和鸡一起住在鸡舍里,但在这个农场主看来,最好把它们分开,特别是如果你有鸭子的话。他们可能试图让母鸡交配,结果是致命的。我们只能说,它们的硬件和公鸡很不一样。
So, if this spring has you ready to add some new ducks to your flock, why not go for the under-appreciated, yet totally valuable and beautiful Cayuga? Or, if you already get to share life with these amiable birds, share your stories below!
JOHN VAMVAKOSsays
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Great article. Love my Cayugas too!
Wren Everettsays
哇,它们太可爱了!很高兴分享对卡尤加的欣赏。等这些小家伙长出成年羽毛吧——它们会很漂亮的!谢谢你的评论。
Leigha Staffenhagensays
看那些小可爱!谢谢你的分享,约翰。你得告诉我们和他们一起生活的最新情况!
Leigha
libbysays
thanks for sharing this article and now i want to get some Cayugas, and i hope it will be really fun.
Wren Everettsays
很高兴能帮上忙,莉比!鸭子真的很有趣,是我们家园的一大资产,如果你有一只,我希望你能学到很多东西,享受这个过程。
Janettesays
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很棒的文章!我养了一只Buff、一只卡其坎贝尔(都是12周大)和一只卡尤加(都是10周大),还有8只22周大的鸡(都是母鸡)。We live in the interior of Alaska and this will be our first time overwintering our flock so it will be a learning experience, 50 and 60 below 0 makes life pretty interesting Any suggestions you may have, I am all ears! We are not going to go the route of a heat lamp in the coop because we have had friends who had their coop burn down and also had others have their flock freeze to death when the lamp suddenly stopped working in the middle of the night, so we are going to do the deep litter method. Anyway, here is a picture of my girls. From the left is Dolly, Patsy, and Reba…yes, I have the Women of Country Trifecta!
Wren Everettsays
Phew, you are made of tougher stuff than me! I can handle temperatures above 100 with little fuss, but when the mercury drops below freezing, I’m a total wimp! As such, my advice is limited to my personal experience of living where winters only drop to -10 on the handful of coldest nights.
That said, I think you’re on the right track. As you already know, deep litter is crucial for ducks in the winter–they bury their feet in it and are able to build up warmth through the cold night. You’ll have to work a little to make sure there’s always some dry material for them to bed in, as they obviously have no qualms about pooping everywhere.
A second, absolutely crucial thing in the cold is to prevent the wind from sucking the warmth out of the coop. It’s a balance with also providing ventilation, but if your coop is solid against the wind, your birds have a better chance of building up heat in that space. Insulate it as well as you can and make sure there are no drafts, particularly where the birds sleep.
A third consideration is letting them acclimate naturally like the animals they are. A lot of people actually impede their birds’ abilities to adjust to the dropping temperatures by constantly offering a human-comfortable warm place as a respite. Wild animals respond to seasonal change, and domestic animals can too if they are allowed to interact with the real temperature without “recesses” in human land (this is why outdoor cats, for example, can usually manage just fine through the winter, but indoor/outdoor cats need protection). I imagine that’s partly why your one friend’s flock froze when the heat lamp went off-they were acclimated to still having that external heat. I’ve heard of off-grid ways of providing heat (such as rice bags heated in the microwave, and so on) but I would only resort to providing those on the absolute worst nights, if even necessary). Ducks in particular are pretty resilient against cold! They don’t have frostbite-prone combs like chickens, and they’re obviously covered in super-warm down!
最后,最后一点建议(在这个冗长的回复中,哈哈)是让他们吃饱。喂养良好的动物可以为身体提供温暖——它们需要大量的能量来保持“体内的火”燃烧。我从另一个农场朋友那里听说,整粒玉米比碎玉米能提供更多的“热量”。
希望会有帮助!如果你还记得,让我们知道冬天是怎么过的!
Alexis Kraliceksays
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这就跟你问声好!我是新来的鸭子,我有一只卡尤加和一只北京!昨天刚满14周,我很喜欢。我从小就把它们养大,我希望生的是女孩,因为我也养了4只鸡,听过所有关于公鸭的故事。所以,我确定北京人是个女孩!卡尤加,弗兰克-琳恩,我不确定。她发出的声音在我听来像个庸医,她非常健谈,充满爱意。老实说,我实在分不清那个品种的公鸭和母鸭的声音有什么区别……它的羽毛有点卷曲,但和我在网上看到的公鸭照片不一样,只是稍微卷曲了一下。在14周的时候,公鸭的羽毛会很突出吗?如果我最终得到了一只公鸭,我应该摆脱这两只鸭子吗,因为它们非常依恋,我不想分开……但我不想我的公鸭变得暴躁。 Any advice?
Wren Everettsays
They’re cute! As far as feathering goes, the best answer I can give you at the moment is “it depends.” The duck growth rates given online are generalities, and your birds are individuals! Sounds are the best earlyish clue for gender that I know.
So, as far as sounds go, the males are markedly different than the females. If your Cayuga does the typical, loud clearly-voiced “QUAAAACK quack quack,” that’s probably a tip-off for being a female. Your female pekin should give you a clue of what it sounds like. The males sound very hoarse (like this, regardless of breed:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uczqOP-cYY8).
如果你最终得到了一只公鸭,你可以在明年春天之前决定如何处理它(在那之前,它的性激素不会让它变得“暴躁”)。如果你决定留下他,你可以再找两个女人来帮助他传播爱慕之情。或者,你也可以尝试用他去换另一个家庭的另一只雌性——尽管我知道你不想把它们分开,但知道它们可以交新朋友,会很好,也许会有帮助。虽然它们现在很可爱,但事实是,如果它过度繁殖,伤害了北京人,如果它们保持原样,它们就会看起来不那么可爱了。
Thanks for your question, Alexis! Hope that helps!
staceysays
Hi I have a boy I thing and a girl. same as above. Are Cayuga males really aggressive during sexual peak? Do I need to get another girl?
Tara Knorsays
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I have 2 Cayuga ducks. Cheese and Quackers. I love them so much
Toni Wheatsays
What do you feed them when there first born ?
Jacksays
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Loved your article
So helpful
我妻子刚买了这三辆卡尤加斯因为我们不得不扔掉太喧闹的莫斯科香肠。
Looking forward to having them roaming around the garden