I bought some Cayuga's in October...still no eggs

[YakLady]

Here's a link, Cottage Rose:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3716949#p3716949

A bunch of us Michiganders are on there. We're planning a get-together in Lansing in June. Come over and visit!

 

[Kool Aid Queen]

are these duck eggs.... the 3 in the center row??????

 

[spamee34]

Looks like duck eggs to me! I have an EE that lays the same color of green eggs as my runners but the EE egg is a rougher texture than the duck eggs my duck eggs are slick feeling where as the EE eggs are not slick but textured. I hope this helps. Is the darker brown egg a maron?

 

[slightlyscrambled]

Oh my Goodness...that lamb is to die for!!
I have been following all duck threads cause I have a drake and need to get him a girl but want to know a little more about them.
thanks

 

[YakLady]

Hi, Slightly Scrambled! I hope you find a girl for your drake. I ended up buying these ducks just to help out a friend in need. I had never considered ducks. Now I'm so glad I have them! They are so cool to watch!

Kool Aid, those look like duck eggs to me, too. The ones I get right now are from my Pekins. They are white and larger than the ones in your picture. The shell, like spamee said, is a bit harder and more slick. When I wash them, they're almost slimy-feeling. We love to eat them poached, and they're also really good for baking. Now that I'm going to hatch them out, though, we won't be eating duck eggs for awhile. LOL! I have three Pekin girls, two Cayuga girls, a Cayuga drake and an Indian Runner drake. It will be interesting to see what the Pekin eggs hatch out to look like. My plan is to hatch out as many as I can for meat birds. I read somewhere that they can be processed at 6 weeks?

 

[cayuga26]

We find Cayuga’s to be very seasonal layers, and that the drakes are prone to “wearing out” if forced to stay in breeding condition to long. On the good side though Cayuga hens make good broodies (though they seem to think they can sit on way more eggs than they can handle and need to be restricted to around 12 once they begin sitting).

It seems the Cayuga eggs are larger (and sometimes blacker) in there second year (though I am sure this may be vary amongst various strains). Our Cayuga’s just began laying two weeks ago (sporadically) one egg every 2 days or so (they are on natural light only as we found artificial light wears the drakes out before the hens can sit on a clutch ie it’s warm enough here to let them sit).

I highly recommend Cayuga’s for there practical qualities (large bird with excellent foraging ability). We have kept both Pekin’s and Cayuga’s and found the Pekins eat three times the quantity of food when on pasture that the Cayuga’s do and do not utilise the pasture space nearly as efficiently. The downside is that the Cayuga’s do take longer to reach a good table size but since they can forage for a good portion of there food and are still ready for the freezer before the weather turns cold I think personally for the backyard producer they make more sense (less commercial food required). And don’t listen to what anyone tells you about “black feathers creating a poor carcass” this might be true for commercial processors but a backyard grower can pluck a Cayuga just as clean as any duck (a feather is still a feather if it is left on the bird regardless of colour!).

Anyways in my opinion for meat production in the backyard or on a homestead the Cayuga is probably second best only to the Muscovy (trying to populate the world with ducklings!) for a meat bird and they look nice to and with there dark feathers stay cleaner than white birds and are much better camouflaged against predation (both as babies and adults) pluse the drakes seem to be fairly docile in terms of breeding aggression compared with other breeds (Khaki Campbell’s are the exact opposite!)

In terms of egg production, I wouldn’t consider them the best egg layers around, they are good seasonal layers but if you really want duck eggs Pekins, Runners or khaki Campbell (or another egg laying breed) would be a better choice.

Just my two cents worth!

oh forgot to mention I think it would be difficult in a backyard/homestead type setting to process your pekins in 6 weeks, ours took 8 weeks while the Cayuga's took 15-20 weeks to reach a good size (longer period but better conversion of free foods such as grass). The key to catching waterfowl in there prime feather conditon (in terms of plucking ability) is to process eather before or after they moult there juvanile feathers (8-9 weeks of age or 18-20 weeks roughly but that varries and I dont have it compleetly figured out yet. In prine condition though a cayuga can be plucked beautifuly in about 3-5 minuts while it could take an hour or more after the pin feathers begin to come in)

 

[TK Poultry]

i found that ducks in general are pretty seasonal mine didnt start laying until mid march and i had fertile eggs from late march to october when i hatched my last batch (Oct. 17 '09) so if that helps probably too late but thats what happened with me!

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
I raise black, blue and silver cayugas, have had them for 3 years, and like I have told a bunch of folks, they start in March here usually and lay til Oct. Today is March 1st, and guess what, 2 eggs out there today, so give 'em a bit, they'll be laying like crazy here before long!

 

[YakLady]

Awesome!!!!! The incubator is on the way! LOL! I've got a little bantam hen that went broody, and she's been sitting on a duck egg for a couple of days now. She's the cutest darn thing-tiny little herself sittin' on a great big duck egg. She's taking it so seriously, I don't have the heart to take it away from her. I moved the egg and the hen into a nest box, and she hasn't budged. It will be interesting to see if it hatches.

 

[nursesammy]

I was looking at this post trying to find more info on cayugas. [i have one hen] i was just curious if your duck egg ever hatched?