Cayugas

Description

The Cayuga is a heavy duck. The Cayuga is almost unmistakable, with its solid black bill and feet and its beautiful black feathers that gleam luminescent green, blue or purple in bright light. They are a seasonal layer, and lay when the weather is warm, and will lay 100 to 160 Eggs yearly. At the beginning of the laying season the eggs are dark and may be almost black; they gradually lighten to the usual pale greenish blue or almost to white by the end of the season.

Use

The Cayuga is a meat-type duck. In the second half of the nineteenth century, it became the principal duck breed reared for meat in the United States. Cayuga ducks are still one of the best duck breeds for meat. Their meat is considered high quality and tasty with a good, strong beefy flavor. In the twenty-first century it may be reared for meat and eggs, but is most often kept for ornament or for showing.

The feathers may be used in the tying of fishing flies.

Cayugas are very hardy, docile, quiet, and are extremely likely to go broody. They are usually good mothers.

Showing

Weight: Drake: 3.6 Kg, Duck: 3.2 Kg.

The Cayuga is a stunning duck to keep, mainly due to the lustrous beetle green sheen that reflects sunlight at certain angles making it look almost iridescent. They have dark brown eyes and a black bill and feet and are an attractive duck to have in the garden. They are relatively rare and keeping a small flock of Cayugas helps to preserve the breed.

The plumage is black with iridescent beetle-green lights; particularly in ducks, some feathers may fade or whiten as the bird ages. Every year that passes, the ducks gain more and more white feathers, until eventually they’re almost pure white. The bill, legs and feet are black or as nearly so as possible; the eyes are dark brown.

The Cayuga was included in the first edition of the American Standard of Perfection in 1874.

History

The Cayuga is an American breed of domestic duck. It was introduced to the Finger Lakes region of New York State in about 1840, and is named for the Cayuga people of that area. The first imports to Britain were said (Lewis Wright’s Poultry 1873) to arrive in 1871, from a Mr. W. Simpson and imported by a Mr. J.K Fowler. They were said to be rather small specimens and thought to have been crossed with the Black East Indian to achieve the green sheen that is seen when the light is right to give an almost iridescent colouring. To improve on size, Lewis Wright says they “…were afterwards crossed, by some with Aylesbury and by others with Rouen to get size.” The type was altered sufficiently for the birds to look more like the Aylesbury and early paintings by the famous poultry artist Ludlow confirm this Aylesbury ‘look-alike’. Lewis Wright goes on to say that “…original birds had no keels while the modern English exhibition Cayuga has this feature very pronounced. “

Until the last years of the nineteenth century, it was the principal duck reared for meat in the United States.