Duck Breed Focus - Cayuga

[Tevyes Dad]

Look at your duckies all teeny and bitty

I am trying to figure out who the yellow ones are, I see the fawn white runner and the WH, but it looks like two white crested?

Actually 4 in that box are no longer with me

The big yellow one to the left was my Pekin Snow. She died last July when for some reason the automatic door didn't open and we slept in. Didn't know the ducks where locked in their house until near noon when it was 89 degrees outside and hotter in their house. All the other ducks made it and were given electrolytes and lots of watermelon, but it was too late for Snow.

We now always check the door even if we went to sleep two hours earlier, then go back to sleep if necessary. We are responsible not the door. We finally caved and decided we NEEDed to have a Pekin again so that is why Allie will be joining us next month.

The Black and Blue runners on the left and right of the growgel cup were Ebony and Belle. They died at about 8 weeks in a raccoon attack. They were in an enclosure, but the raccoon was able to herd them near the side and reach through the wires and pull them through. We set up better accommodations for the flock and lowered the local raccoon population significantly. Noir and Mystique eventually took their place in the flock which is why they are quite a bit younger.

Finally with the two Crested, this at least is a happier story. The one with his head hanging in the grogel cup licking the last bits out of it is Tevye. The other one was Natasha (when we first started planning our ducks, we were considering getting them all "straight run" so we had both boy and girl names for all the breeds - fortunately we were educated about drakes before we ordered and then decided on just the two drakes). She was a mis-pick by Metzers that was supposed to be our WH girl Rhiannon. We didn't want a female Crested which was our initial logic in having Tevye be the second drake. When there are drakes involved, Crested girls are more at risk due to their mating rituals and the crest often is yanked instead of the neck. Murdochs helped us rehome Natasha when she was still cute and fluffy and we heard back that her owner absolutely loves her... A week later, Rhiannon arrived with her packing peanut who we called "No Name". She was also a WH and we didn't have a second female name and Murdochs had said the would help with her too so we didn't come up with a name for her. We made sure she stabilized for a day and she went to Murdochs and was rehomed right away too. (At 13 we thought we were completely full up.) Having had all the ducks and having them grown up, we can probably handle the 15 we will have, but then we will really be full up - at least until we build them their super duck house some day....

Oh... and to stay on topic

, the black one in the upper right is Pocahontas - the Cayuga

Edit:
Ooops, I am embarrassed. The duck I identified as Belle was actually Dove. Belle is the one right below Kaine (obvious rouen top center) and she has Snow's bill across her chest.

 

[MyMonsters91]

Lookie! My husband got me babies! I've been trying to get my hands on a female Cayuga to pair with my male Cayuga, but I haven't had any luck. I got some other Hens to go with my 2 adult drakes and now I'm going to raise these babies with my little chicks until they're old enough to merge with my other ducks. Hopefully I have at least one girl in here!

Meet Cookie, Toph and Sand Camo

 

[N F C]

Lookie! My husband got me babies! I've been trying to get my hands on a female Cayuga to pair with my male Cayuga, but I haven't had any luck. I got some other Hens to go with my 2 adult drakes and now I'm going to raise these babies with my little chicks until they're old enough to merge with my other ducks. Hopefully I have at least one girl in here!

Meet Cookie, Toph and Sand Camo

Beautiful, I hope they are all girls!

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Lookie! My husband got me babies! I've been trying to get my hands on a female Cayuga to pair with my male Cayuga, but I haven't had any luck. I got some other Hens to go with my 2 adult drakes and now I'm going to raise these babies with my little chicks until they're old enough to merge with my other ducks. Hopefully I have at least one girl in here!

Meet Cookie, Toph and Sand Camo

@Julie Bird - So Cute!!!

 

[Julie Birb]

@Tevyes Dad - CHEEEEEEEEEBEEEEEP! THANK YOU FOR THE TAG OF THE HANDFUL OF SMALL SOFT CUTE ROUND DUCKLINGS. THE WEBS, faces and bills are too much for me to handle. I love them they are very little and all fit into one hand.

Oh, @MyMonsters91 - very very and again, very KOOT.

 

[MandyJ]

How do I tell the difference between Cayuga and Blue Swedish ducklings. I purchased 2 of each. I don't see much difference. One of the 4 has a little more cream on it's face but they all are black with cream markings.

Thanks in advance. See picture below.
M

 

[MandyJ]

Not a very good picture of the ducklings, I'll try to get a better one. Mine are the four black ones (2 Cayuga and 2 Blue Swedish) and the Pekin in the back left with the smudge on her head. The other 4 Pekins are a friend's that I picked up for him since I was going to Ideal Hatchery to pick up mine.

 

[cayugaducklady]

I'm not sure how you would tell those two black breeds apart. I couldnt tell my 4 cayuga ducklings apart reliably until they were adults. They didnt even get permanent names until they started laying.

I could always tell the largest & the smallest apart but the in-betweeners were virtually the same size as babies.

Maybe when they lose their baby down the swedish will have some color changes.,

They're adorable. I'm sorry I dont have a better answer.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Not a very good picture of the ducklings, I'll try to get a better one. Mine are the four black ones (2 Cayuga and 2 Blue Swedish) and the Pekin in the back left with the smudge on her head. The other 4 Pekins are a friend's that I picked up for him since I was going to Ideal Hatchery to pick up mine.

The ones with the lighter area on their chest (I think the two leftmost) are the Swedish. Some people use Blue Swedish for Blue and Black colors or some say Black Swedish for the Black. If your Blue Swedish are black, that will be the only difference. If they are Blue, they should be a lighter gray with a lighter spot on their chest.

Baby pics from my flock:

Black Swedish


Blue Swedish


Cayuga

 

[MyMonsters91]

Oh.. that has me worried! Is this possibly a Blue Swedish?! They were the only black ducks at Atwood and the store said it was Cayuga! 'Cookie' has the lightest and brightest chest and I've suspected of being a boy for being more out-ward protective.


The other two are darker chested with no light splotches on their feet, a very tiny tiny bit of yellow around the beak.