Cayuga duck eggs

[inthesticks]

First Cayuga egg!! Sadly that was one the 26th & since then no more eggs

Cayuga owners, do you girls lay daily? Or do they seem to lay randomly
Also-when they have gone broody did they lay more consecutively? Sorry for all the Qs, I have just been egggcrazed these past couple weeks with the ducks coming of age & my Japanese Bantams getting close as well.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Many ducks slow down when the weather is hot.

Some breeds lay for most of the year and some breeds lay only in the spring. I don't know which the Cayuga is about laying, but I usually don't see them recommended as a heavy producer. It's possible that indicates they are a spring laying breed.

 

[learycow]

Are your ducks in a coop or free ranging? It is possible she has laid more eggs but they just haven't been found. I know that when mine start laying, some of their eggs are so dark they blend in with the ground. I've mistaken them for rocks before! And they can lay pullet sized eggs too which can make them easy to miss (small eggs).
It could just be your hens though. I've had some that lay one everyday once they start and others that lay now and then for the first few weeks until they get the hang of it.
And Cayugas are known to lay 100-150 eggs per year. They are seasonal and will only lay in the warm months. But where yours are young and just starting to lay, it is possible they may lay through part of the winter.

 

[inthesticks]

I only give them supervised free time- & I have been egg crazed for some time now & comb thru their yard like a hawk for anything egg shaped! I hope the other 2 girls get going to & all 3 lay some thru the winter so that when spring comes they will be familiar with the idea of laying. I also go to the spot they were foraging in last to check for eggs just in case, as they move around my property. I'm thinking that not only with Cayugas sporadic tendencies that the drakes may have something to do with it? This past week they have gone into a breeding frenzy! They have a new favorite, my smallest of the 3 girls- I have been keeping the boys out of the fowl yard for most of the day & have done that yest & today -with success they have mellowed out with the girls. -Thinking she laid the lone egg, would her being "targeted" throw her off from the whole laying thing you think?

 

[learycow]

It is possible. I know that over breeding can stress them out and cause them to stop laying.
Also, don't know if you are aware but most ducks (not all, and it may not develop until they get in the hang of laying) lay in the mornings. I live in Maine and find that most of them lay between 5 and 8 am. Rarely do I find eggs after that. But sometimes new layers don't have their timing figured out at the start.

 

[chickney]

Hello inthesticks,
What ever happened with your Cayuga? Did they continue laying through the winter? My one Cayuga hen started laying a week ago. I found the first egg on the ground of the coop and thought it was a dirty poulet egg. It was a little bigger than the poulet egg, but much smaller than one of my full grown adult eggs. In the first week of our Cayuga's start of laying she laid 5 eggs. What I am curious about is why she is laying when it is 15 degrees outside and why so much? One other interesting thing is that now she jumps up to our chicken nesting boxes which are 2-3 ft off the ground and lays her eggs. It is pretty funny actually and adorable. I am not complaining I love it, I am just wondering if anyone else has experienced this? How have your Cayugas been laying in the winter?

 

[inthesticks]

My 2 that lay a normal greeny egg stopped laying around Xmas time or so - my other lady that lays an off-white egg stopped in Nov & now is popping out @ random

I was able to put 10 eggs(7 fresh, 3 older & from the fridge) into a friend's incubator in Nov & 8 formed & all hatched out the 2 that didn't were from the fridge & just too darned old I guess

Hopefully they will all start back up regularly in a couple weeks


Some of my chickens just started up (& more that are coming of age are investigated the nesting crates & barrels) who knows, it's more so about light than warmth

I have a tiny LED night light in the coop so they can see enough to get back up onto their roosting poles if they fall/get pushed off. My ducks do not have anything on the 1st level
The little light may have something to do with it but it's still pretty dark in there. Do you have any lights in your coop/duck area on at night?

 

[chickney]

Presently our two ducks (male and female) share a coop with our chickens. We have 2 heat lamps and close the coop up so it gets somewhat warm. This summer we plan to build a duck coop in the same run. I am going to order 4 hens and alowly convert to duck egg consumption because I just recently found out im allergic to egg white and ducks have a larger yolk with less white. I dont have any good pictures at the moment because there is so mucb anow. Here is an older picture with our flock mingling.

 

[rawrduckiee]

I have a Cayuga duck, she should be laying right now but isn't. And I would like to hear if anyone has answers to why she isn't laying yet, she is over 7 months old, our chickens which we bought 3 weeks after the ducks are laying now. I do free range the ducks, but I have looked around in the bushes and still nothing. I'm not sure whats going on, and wonder why she isn't laying eggs.

 

[Macaroun]

New to this forum thing...I got 3 female and 1 male Cayuga, as well as a male & female Muskovie, and 3 chickens, all last November or so. The Female Cayuga's dropped eggs wherever they were standing, intermittently, all winter, then early spring started laying in nests. They live all over the back yard, pooping, trimming the grass, and splashing it the ponds. Hatched a batch of 13 out of 17 laid two months ago, now the other 2 mamas are sitting together on about 25, ready to pop. The first mama is setting again on another dozen for about 2 weeks, and now my Muskovie has 14, but hasn't started setting yet. I'm in southeast Portland, 1/8th acre lot, and ducks up the wazoo, if anybody wants some. I'll eat them if I have to, but I'd just as soon give them away.