Cayuga, welsh harquins, or blue Swedish?

If you are going with all girls, I don't think it matters much. My general approach is - no drakes larger than ducks. This may sound extreme, but if one is new to ducks, and wants to avoid heartache and injury, that is one way to help. Drakes can be brutal. Big drakes can accidentally cause harm, just from the size difference.

There are always exceptions to the rule, but the Duck Forum has seen a number of stories of problems with drakes. So if you are not prepared to have a separate area for a drake, then go with smaller drakes. Another way to say this is, a Pekin female may be just fine, especially if you get them all at the same time.

If you have analysis paralysis, then flip a coin! Ducks are wonderful!
 
X2

I had no intention for you to dismiss the Pekin either. Mine is huge and she gets along great with the other ducks. If you have the option (like Metzer) to have them all sexed, I wouldn't get any drakes unless it is your intention to breed (then you probably don't want such a mixed flock). If I had to pick the friendliest from my flock from those options it would be hard. My Pekin is the most conversational, my Welsh Harlequin is the most cuddly (if you can call a duck cuddly) and my Cayuga and my two Swedish are the most likely to nibble my feet/shoelaces. (I don't have a Khaki Campbell) This shouldn't be a stressful decision. You should just find out who you like. When we picked ours, I admit we didn't have a clue. So here was our criteria: Shipping worked out better at 10 and that was about what we thought we could handle based on house size and yard size. So we went through and picked the ones we thought were prettiest. We came up with 11 and figured it would be silly to spend a bunch of time figuring out which one we didn't want, so we ordered the 11. This was the most uninformed silly way to pick a flock. We LOVE our flock. It is perfect! For pets and eggs I recommend a mixed flock because you can readily identify each bird right from the start. And their personalities are very individual. No matter what you do if you get all girls I think you will be fine.

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Relax and (plug, plug) read my baby book in the signature...
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X2! Unless you're breeding, I don't really think it's an issue which you get. Get the ones that you like the best!
 
I am just now starting to raise my cayugas so I can't tell you about long term but I can tell you from DAY ONE they were calmer and more quiet than blues or welsh. I had 6 welsh that I just had to rehome because they were SOOOO LOUD. Calm duck doesn't mean quiet duck - just keep that in mind. I know any duck can be loud but i never knew ducks could be as loud as my WH. They were OBNOXIOUS, as well as my Rouens. The sweedish I can't personally say were loud but i've read several places that sweedish are a noisy duck. I can testify that welsh, although insanely beautiful to look at are noisy - or at least can be VERY noisy. - deafening, obnoxious OMG, gonna get the cops called on me, loud, like we were ready to take them to freezer camp if they didn't find a home, noisy. it was insane. and there's no way to make them quiet if they don't want to be. I got them from METZER. I have 100% great things to say about metzer but I don't think getting Welsh from them will make them any quieter.

I am hoping the Cayuga are a bit more quiet, as I've read they are....
 
My Welsh is a pretty quiet duck, along with my Cayuga. My Swedish and Khaki, on the other hand, are real talkers. ESPECIALLY the Swedish.

I really think it depends on the duck, not necessarily the breed.
 
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Epic! Very well written, informative and super funny!! After reading your post, I will not be getting these ducks.
 

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