Though not as bad as chickens, ducks are still highly preyed upon. May 17, 2018 215 443 131. Unlike chicken manure, which needs to be composted, duck manure is “cold” which means it can be applied straight to the soil you’re enriching.None of the other ducks made an escape attempt, but I would still recommend clipping the flight feathers of one wing on any new, adult duck that you bring home … just to be sure they stick around during the adjustment period!Some websites say that they are quiet. They don’t have frostbite-prone combs like chickens, and they’re obviously covered in super-warm down!Finally, the last bit of advice (in this overlong reply, haha) is to keep them well-fed. Like human kids, ducklings will swim until they’re too tired to get out on their own. The Cayuga duck can reach up to eight pounds for the male Cayuga ducks, and seven pounds for the female Cayuga ducks. A well-fed animal can provide that body warmth–they use a lot of energy to keep that “internal fire” burning. Ducks in particular are pretty resilient against cold! By Holly Fuller – Cayuga ducks are a threatened breed. As far as feathering goes, the best answer I can give you at the moment is “it depends.” The duck growth rates given online are generalities, and your birds are individuals! If you enjoy unusual egg colors and do end up with a black egg-layer, enjoy it while it lasts. Interestingly, their eggs are black during the early part of the season, but gradually fade to white over the course of the year.Cayugas are very hardy, docile, fairly quiet, and are extremely likely to go broody and be a good mother. more . Love my Cayugas too!A source of huge, nutrient-dense eggs, companionship, meat, down, and manure, these birds have a lot to offer the homestead willing to give them a home.Though it was hardly a masculine name, I couldn’t help but refer to our male Cayuga as “Lisa Frank Duck.”They were raised on large farms as a premier meat breed until the light-feathered (and therefore, easier to process) Pekin punted it from its throne in the 1890s.If you do end up with a drake, you have all the way until next spring to decide what to do with him (his sex hormones won’t turn him “ornery” until then). Every year that passes, they gain more and more white feathers, until eventually they’re almost pure white.The Cayuga is almost unmistakable, with its solid black bills and feet, and solid black feathers that are a beautiful luminescent green in bright light. You can allow them to swim in a kiddie pool or the bathtub every now and again after about 5 weeks, but you will have to help them. Maybe the decision to raise ducks is about egg production. Just a pretty duck to brighten up your Monday. They aren’t as popular as the Pekin for meat because black pinfeathers on white skin doesn’t look as savory as white feathers on white skin (it is nearly impossible to remove all the pinfeathers during butchering), but their meat is otherwise considered high quality and tasty with a good, strong beefy flavor.Raising Ducks is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.