Colour sexing Cayuga ducks

[CayugaJana]

It's weird, but I noticed today that my drakes feet and legs are mostly black again. Maybe from hormones

Could very well be. I’ve also noticed my drakes bill gets more green the more he uses it. Kinda like he rubs some of the black off....

 

[Cayuga momma]

Could very well be. I’ve also noticed my drakes bill gets more green the more he uses it. Kinda like he rubs some of the black off....

Yes! That's what I thought happened when my drakes bill turned orange.

 

[Stephen Johnstone]

The person I got my Cayuga eggs from said that Cayugas can often be visually sexed as ducklings. He said he’s had 80% accuracy with this method.

Females: Solid jet black, thinner neck, overall smaller even as young hatchlings.

Males: Dark chocolate brown, often has white around face or chest, thicker neck and overall larger size. Adults will often develop yellow bills and orange feet.

Of the 6 ducklings I hatched, I did notice these traits in them. I ended up keeping 1 possible male and 1 possible female (based on this method). Now that they are almost 3 weeks old, the traits have become even more defined. The supposed female one is still smaller and more slender with a jet black colour. The supposed male is bulkier overall and has a lighter coloration with a tiny touch of white beside his bill.

Has anyone else ever noticed these things with their Cayuga ducklings? I’m curious to know if there’s any truth behind this.

I breed cayugas and would have to say that this info is rubbish, they should never develop yellow bills it should always be black. The males do have a more of an orange tinge to there feet as they age but for breeding you would always select out those that have the darkest feet. Brown feathers are a fault and I would never use any cayuga showing brown feathers to breed from and as for white you will get the odd one showing white but again in the breed standard it is again seen as a fault ( apart from older birds who sometimes develop white feathers as they age ) So in reply to your question have a look at the British Poultry standard and you will see that all these points that have been made are not only untrue and that all these faults are not gender specific.

 

[aaronmg]

The person I got my Cayuga eggs from said that Cayugas can often be visually sexed as ducklings. He said he’s had 80% accuracy with this method.

Females: Solid jet black, thinner neck, overall smaller even as young hatchlings.

Males: Dark chocolate brown, often has white around face or chest, thicker neck and overall larger size. Adults will often develop yellow bills and orange feet.

Of the 6 ducklings I hatched, I did notice these traits in them. I ended up keeping 1 possible male and 1 possible female (based on this method). Now that they are almost 3 weeks old, the traits have become even more defined. The supposed female one is still smaller and more slender with a jet black colour. The supposed male is bulkier overall and has a lighter coloration with a tiny touch of white beside his bill.

Has anyone else ever noticed these things with their Cayuga ducklings? I’m curious to know if there’s any truth behind this.

my cayuga ducklings always looked identical except for two things. they were vastly different in size, and while the one of them had shaped eyes the smaller one had really round eyes. they're now almost 7 weeks old and their colouring is identical and I always thought my bigger duck was a drake and my smaller a female. but my smaller duck isn't making any rasp or loud quacking, and my bigger duck has started to quack! do you know at what age they start developing yellow bills?

 

[Mudbillkisses]

Most if not all my ducklings have a u shape. And I’m pretty sure I have at least 2 males. My adult male has a u shaped bill on his face as well. So it doesn’t work in my case. My male has a greenish bill and a slight orange tint in his legs. Both are part of the breed standard. If they have all orange legs, it’s considered a breed defect. The females should have all black legs as adults.

The sound of their voice after 3-4 weeks is still the best way for me to tell whether they are a male or female.

What does the voice difference sound like at 3-4 weeks that you're referring to? I have a cayuga duckling that's 6 weeks old and I'm not sure if it's boy/girl but really trying to figure out it