Questions about Cayugas and Black East Indian Need info before I buy

[cwc362]

I really like the way the cayugas and the smaller East Indian ducks look. In the distant past I have had a couple of pekins , mallards and a lot of overreproductive muscovies.. My least favorite were the pekins because I couldn't get them to raise babies-- But to be fair, looking back , I may have had 2 boy or 2 girls --never learned the differenc on the pekins. My mallards raised well even without a formal pond. And I think somebody slipped the muscovies fertility drugs

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Anyway I have been seeing Cayugas and the East Indians? ( is that the right name) I love the way these ducks looks !!!! Can some of you veteran duck ranchers give me some info on them.. Like personality, thriftiness, broodiness etc. Just any kind of info to get me started before I go get some. I have resisted them at the flea market for the last couple of months but I am getting weak.

Thanks in advance --Wayne

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

I don't know much about these ducks, but I do know that they lay lots of eggs.

 

[farm_mom]

http://feathersite.com/Poultry/Ducks/BkEast/BRKEastIndies.html

http://feathersite.com/Poultry/Ducks/Cayuga/BRKCayuga.html

I started raising Cayugas this spring, and so far I've been really happy with them. I have 4 ducks and I get 3 eggs a day, like clockwork. They have a great temperment and will forage readily.

 

[birdnutz]

I love my BEI's. They are really comical. Of course I haven't raised any of the other ducks. They are seasonal layers though. You'll get plenty of eggs in the spring and early summer. They make great mothers. I let mom raise them and have never had a drake kill a duckling. They are also quite verbal just like a call. Smaller than a cayuga = less food.
Duke and Duchess. My very 1st pair. I can still pick her call out of the group. As you can see they aren't real afraid. Especially when it comes to worm digging.

One of their babies.

 

[giffy]

Just to add to what birdnutz said, they are also good fliers but take little time in learning where the food is.

The ideal birds have the iridescent green throughout, black bill and legs/feet............this does change as they get older. As they begin to age (even by age 2-3) they will get white plumage and olive in the bill and lighter colored legs/feet. It seems as though the females get this earlier than the drakes. Even so they will still produce young with the ideal coloring.

giffy
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[Southerngirl]

We raise the Black Cayugas and they are sooo beautiful ! They are curious, not overly noisy and forage for themselves. When they see us going to the barn for feeding time they form a line and start walking to their pen to put themselves up. We bought ours from Cackle hatchery as day olds and all 12 lived.

Their eggs are also very pretty and look like rocks !!

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

We have both and they are on opposite ends of the behavior scale. The cayugas are fat and slow and calm. Mine dont lay that much and they eat alot. We have had them raise babies but they arent the best mothers. The indies are very pretty but mine are excellent fliers. Mine are more flighty and on average lay maybe a dozen eggs a year. They dont really care for babies either. Maybe its because my birds are show birds that they are bad at everything else.

 

[cwc362]

Thanks everybody for your input and great info and pics-- !!! Flyingmonkeypoop I've run across several of your posts over the last few weeks --Man, you are smart when it comes to all these birds-- Now i know who to pm when I have a question.

I've had chickens and other animals on and off all my life , but I've learned a LOT since I got on BYC . Now I got a questions about rouens--ummmmmmmmm. Wayne

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Lol thanks. I have a large knowledge of alot of random things. When I did fitting and showing for the last time at the fair the judge handed me a duck and asked me to tell him about it. It was a cross breed but I had seen the cross before. I told him what it was so he asked me to tell him about the parent breeds. One of the parents was a campbell so I said they are well known for egg laying and have set records for laying, they were derived from runners and rouens and such, the welsh harlequin was created using them, that kind of thing. Then I told him the DQ's and started on the weights and he stopped me and told me that it was kinda "geeky" to know so much about a breed.

What is your question about rouens?

 

[cwc362]

Quote:
I'm glad you know a lot about them. Geeky or not lol

I was just wondering about the rouens laying ability -personality and broodiness--just general beginner questions-- I saw a couple of pair of those also at the flea market the other week. What do you think about the Pekins ? The ones I had before were my least favorite of the 3 different kins I had. --Wayne