Proud Cayuga owners!!!!

[inthesticks]

Hey everyone! I have been all around BYC and finally decided I NEEDED to sign up so I could communicate with all you great people!! I have seen these types of thread for other species/breeds so here we go, one for our ducks! Post pictures share stories etc..
So post some pics & give a little info about your babies like names, age, gender, when they layed their first egg, personality etc..
I'll go first

I have 5 13wk old Cayugas, with two of them being drakes. They are very quite & will only belt it out loud from annoyance or when they here my downstairs door open(the feed door) & want me to come visit. They have just recently started to 'mate' luckily my girls have been willing, even putting their own heads in the water for the boys most of the time!!! No eggs, they have begun to take interest in the nesting boxes, even climbing into them & investigating.
Here's Queenie(pompom girl) Winger, & the other 3 I still have yet to find the perfect names for them so they are just my babies right now.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hey everyone! I have been all around BYC and finally decided I NEEDED to sign up so I could communicate with all you great people!! I have seen these types of thread for other species/breeds so here we go, one for our ducks! Post pictures share stories etc..
So post some pics & give a little info about your babies like names, age, gender, when they layed their first egg, personality etc..
I'll go first

I have 5 13wk old Cayugas, with two of them being drakes. They are very quite & will only belt it out loud from annoyance or when they here my downstairs door open(the feed door) & want me to come visit. They have just recently started to 'mate' luckily my girls have been willing, even putting their own heads in the water for the boys most of the time!!! No eggs, they have begun to take interest in the nesting boxes, even climbing into them & investigating.
Here's Queenie(pompom girl) Winger, & the other 3 I still have yet to find the perfect names for them so they are just my babies right now.

Beautiful ducks...

 

[Kevin565]

Gorgeous Ducks!

 

[SJUDD]

They are so beautiful!! I ended up with one Cayuga because she was the only one at the feed store and I just love things that are "different". She is 6 weeks old and just adorable. Thank you for the pictures so I could see what she might end up looking like someday soon. Here is a picture of mine with her Mallard "siblings" being naughty and playing in my Koi pond this morning.

 

[inthesticks]

They are so beautiful!! I ended up with one Cayuga because she was the only one at the feed store and I just love things that are "different". She is 6 weeks old and just adorable. Thank you for the pictures so I could see what she might end up looking like someday soon. Here is a picture of mine with her Mallard "siblings" being naughty and playing in my Koi pond this morning.

Naughty but adorable! Hope your koi are big enough to be left alone!!! My ducks LOVEE eating fish. They get weekly fishy treats, I'll get about 50 feeder fish & put them in their pool. Now that's a site to see!!

 

[inthesticks]

Thanks for the welcome! I have been all around this place & finally stepped up & joined

 

[crissycriss]

Hey everyone! I have been all around BYC and finally decided I NEEDED to sign up so I could communicate with all you great people!! I have seen these types of thread for other species/breeds so here we go, one for our ducks! Post pictures share stories etc..
So post some pics & give a little info about your babies like names, age, gender, when they layed their first egg, personality etc..
I'll go first
I have 5 13wk old Cayugas, with two of them being drakes. They are very quite & will only belt it out loud from annoyance or when they here my downstairs door open(the feed door) & want me to come visit. They have just recently started to 'mate' luckily my girls have been willing, even putting their own heads in the water for the boys most of the time!!! No eggs, they have begun to take interest in the nesting boxes, even climbing into them & investigating.
Here's Queenie(pompom girl) Winger, & the other 3 I still have yet to find the perfect names for them so they are just my babies right now.

LOVE your Cayugas.I want to get a few next spring. I have pekins and mallards.

 

[SouthsideDucks]

Hey everyone! I have been all around BYC and finally decided I NEEDED to sign up so I could communicate with all you great people!! I have seen these types of thread for other species/breeds so here we go, one for our ducks! Post pictures share stories etc..
So post some pics & give a little info about your babies like names, age, gender, when they layed their first egg, personality etc..
I'll go first

I have 5 13wk old Cayugas, with two of them being drakes. They are very quite & will only belt it out loud from annoyance or when they here my downstairs door open(the feed door) & want me to come visit. They have just recently started to 'mate' luckily my girls have been willing, even putting their own heads in the water for the boys most of the time!!! No eggs, they have begun to take interest in the nesting boxes, even climbing into them & investigating.
Here's Queenie(pompom girl) Winger, & the other 3 I still have yet to find the perfect names for them so they are just my babies right now.

Welcome to BYC! I think you have beautiful ducks. I have cayugas as well, 4 of them. They are wonderful ducks, I enjoyed your comments on behavior at 13 weeks with mating, we were wondering when we might see more activity, Our our 10 weeks old now and one of our males, Clover, is just starting to nibble at the other ducks feathers, not hurting or biting but I guess establishing a pecking order. He also seems to be 'dating' Clementine, they often roam about foraging together. I have 3 Pekins as well, they all get along great. Here are my cayuga ducks taken today (10 weeks and 2 days) .

This is Clementine, she is our vocal female quacking loud and proud. Especially when it's food time or when she sees us/hears us in the kitchen and demands a snack. She follows Clover around everywhere, it is adorable watching them together. She shimmers blue-green along her back too and is extremely sweet. She bops her head at us all the time and is pretty solidly imprinted to me


This is Blackberry, our beautiful black with hints of purple cayuga, he really is a Blackberry. We are still not 100% sure if he is a he, but certainly is the one in the group that is the most quiet. He is often exploring first or off leading the foraging exhibitions, doesn't like competing for food. We make sure to hand feed him special treats so he doesn't have to come up against any of the slightly bigger Pekins. He is very gentle and sweet



This is Juniper, or June for short. She is almost as loud as Clementine, especially during snack time, she is lovely in color with shimmers of blue green. So pretty...it is too bad that it was cloudy here. She loves cuddles and loves mud + bugs so so so much.


This is Clover, or brilliant green blue cayuga, he is beautiful. He is also very social always bopping his head up and down when he sees us and coming to say hello. He nibbles at feathers every so often but the other ducks don't seem at all bothered. He keeps up with all the Pekins and holds his own when he gets and wants to keep a treat. He is spending a lot of time with the ladies these days...especially Clementine, the two of them together omg so cute!


They are all really sweet ducks, love the water and still dive around when we bring them into the deep pool. They love bugs, are pretty quiet unless it's time to open the coop in the morning or food/snack time. They jump really well, have individual personalities and preferences. They know when it is bed time and head on up to the coop.... I love watching them

 

[inthesticks]

This is Blackberry, our beautiful black with hints of purple cayuga, he really is a Blackberry. We are still not 100% sure if he is a he, but certainly is the one in the group that is the most quiet. He is often exploring first or off leading the foraging exhibitions, doesn't like competing for food. We make sure to hand feed him special treats so he doesn't have to come up against any of the slightly bigger Pekins. He is very gentle and sweet

Awww They are gorgeous! Have you tried taking Blackberry away from the others, out of eye view? Most of the time they will start calling out & then you will know for sure if Blackberry is a boy or girl

Yesterday I even took some air dry clay and fashioned some decoy eggs for the ducks & my different chickens. I am so looking forward to eggs!

Clementine sounds like my Queenie(my pompom headed girl) she thinks she rules the fowl yard!! She & Winger are always together as well. Winger always has one of his wings 1/2 sticking out, every time I fix the feathers, he goes & moves the one wing till they are back where they were before

Do you let them wonder around free range at all? If so how did it go at first

 

[SouthsideDucks]

Awww They are gorgeous! Have you tried taking Blackberry away from the others, out of eye view? Most of the time they will start calling out & then you will know for sure if Blackberry is a boy or girl

Yesterday I even took some air dry clay and fashioned some decoy eggs for the ducks & my different chickens. I am so looking forward to eggs!

Clementine sounds like my Queenie(my pompom headed girl) she thinks she rules the fowl yard!! She & Winger are always together as well. Winger always has one of his wings 1/2 sticking out, every time I fix the feathers, he goes & moves the one wing till they are back where they were before

Do you let them wonder around free range at all? If so how did it go at first

Thanks for the tip, it is something to try. We haven't had a situation yet where Blackberry has been alone, so I guess I'll have to try that and see. They are always together in a group of seven or broken up into two groups, one with three the other with four. When they split up too far Clementine or Dandelion will go backwards and round everyone up. She doesn't go back for just one though. They free range throughout the day but only in an area 800 square feet, we have it fenced in and they just do their thing throughout the day. We have a lot of little buggies around the yard but as time wears on less and less greens. We still have 1/4 acre behind us so we plan to gradually expand and have a moveable run so they can access fresh new areas. I've been cutting down and drying the ducks bedding and have collected all the grass seed. I've been taking this and throwing into their area at dusk when they are tucked in. I figure with all that duck poop some grass has got to take. On top of them free ranging we feed them a 10am breakfast and 5pm dinner. We give them fresh greens overnight like turnip greens, dandelions, watercress or kale. They took to free ranging easily, at first always wary of things like crows, airplanes, loud noises...they showed us in the first week of them starting forage that we had a few areas in the fencing to fix. Luckily all 6, where located -Dandelion did not leave and alerted us that her fellow ducks where taking a journey. They where easy to round up and now that it's fixed, no problems!
I understand your excitement about eggs, I can't wait! Let me know how your decoy eggs go and what works best! Also, let me know what color the eggs are.... I hear they start blackish blue and gradually fade into a lighter color. So EGG-citing!