Famous Domestic Duck in the world

Indian Runner
If you want fresh egg daily, you can care Indian runner at your backyard.  It can produces egg up to 300 eggs daily. It eggs is light green color and heavier than domesticated hen's egg. The egg fat is higher than chicken. That is why duck eggs is more delicious than chicken eggs. In Philippine, the duck eggs is a favorite food. They hatch the egg up to eighteen days. It eggs is called balut and it sold at Manila street. I think not all people can eat balut because the embryo still there. People eat balut with jalapeno and vinegar.  In Indonesia, people salt the eggs so it becomes more tasty. They can boil and grill the salt duck egg.

Unlike other fowl, Indian runner does not hatch its eggs. The hen let the eggs in the corner of pen after laying. The breeder hatch the eggs with chicken hen or muscovy duck hen. Some rich breeder use hatchery machine. The eggs hatch 28 days or four week. It takes longer time than chicken eggs because the duck egg skin is thicker than the chicken.

The color of the duck is white, roan, barred, brown, black, plaid, blue, and others. The beak is yellow and black color. The feet is yellow, black and khaki. The male has curly tail. It could differentiate male to female. The male voice is also lower than the duck. Some species is raised as pet like Bali duck which is white color and crested.

According scientiest, Indian runnder is wild mallard descent. The ancient farm has domesticated this bird successfully that produce more eggs and more meat. The body of Indian runner is higher than the ancestors. People named it Indian runner because its high.

Indonesia has dozen Indian runner strain like Itik Tegal, Itik Magelang, Itik Bali, Itik Mojosari, Itik Cirebon, and others.The largest Indian runner farm in Indonesia is Alabio district (Kabupaten Alabio), South Borneo. South Borneo people prefer duck meat than chicken meat. They can hatch duck eggs with rice husk. This is a cheaper way than using hatchery machine or incubator machine.


Muscovy Duck
Muscovy duck (Cairana Moschata) is a domesticated duck that produce red meat. Some people like the dark meat that contain much fat. This bird is easy to care and easy eater. The bird is resistance to some fowl disease. It can eat grain, insect, small fish, snail, grass, young leaf and others.

The wing feather is long enough and could reach 25 cm. I use the feather wing as my pen. The white wing feather is for shuttlecock.

The weight of the drake could reach 10 kg or 20 pounds.It almost similar with the small goose. Meanwhile the female is just 5 kilogram. The Drake is bigger two times than the female. The drake is also longer than the female. The drake is about 86 cm length  and  the female is just 64 cm.

The muscovy body is slender like African geese. The neck length is shorter than Goose. It can fly away from your pen even the domesticated. It does not forget to fly like their ancestor.

It has long beak. The drake has red blood face and crest. There is two sharp nails at the edge wing and elbow. It is useful to expel predator. No Eagle is dare to this bird.

The hen is a productive layer too. It can lay up to 14 eggs per breeding. The hen hatch the eggs up to 28 days or four week. The egg color is light brown. In my country, farmer often use chicken hen to hatch the duck eggs.

The origin of this water fowl is Texas, Mexico, Central America and Brazil. The color of the muscovy is black. After domesticated there are some variety color like : pied, barred, white, blue, chocolate, bronze. lavender, and many pastel color.

Like other waterfowl, the bird like swimming. If you want care it, you need to provide a pool for them. The diet of this bird is corn, pollard, paddy, and others. They need grit too like other fowls.

Cayuga Duck

Cayuga duck is almost similar with Indian runner he weight is double Indian Runner. The drake weight could reach seven pounds and the hen could reach six pounds. It is black blue color. The beak is black color.Cayuga origin is Cayuga Lake in New York State. That is why this duck is tolerate bad winter in North America.

This domesticated is raised for its meat. like other dark, this fowl produce red dark meat which is delicious and full nutrient. Unfortunately, the black dark feather is very difficult to remove. The duck cannot lay many eggs as Indian runner does.The cayuga hen can lay 100 -150 eggs a year. The color of eggs is light white.
Peking Duck

Hence with its name, the duck come from Peking, the capital city of China. United States imported first in 1870. This is the most famous duck in the world. Peking duck is most delicious cuisine and the. It is white color. the beak and the feet is yellow color. The body of the duck is slender like Cayuga duck. The drake is  4.5 kg and the hen is 4 kg. Both drake and hen is not difference in weight.


The farm raise the bird in small cage so the duck cannot move so the fat meat is high. The high meat meat, the more delicious. I think I am pity with this kind duck. Some breeder cross breed this duck with Aylesbury to get juicy meat.
The hen can lay up to 100 egss in a year. Therefore, this duck is not good for layer.

Read Also:
Bali Crested Duck
Ancona: The English Duck
Campbell Duck
Anatomy of Duck
Cayuga Duck: The Native American Duck

Indian Runner The Most Prolific Duck

Indian runner is the most prolific duck in the world. It can lays up to 300 eggs in a year. It is more productive than domesticated layer hen. It begins to lay at six month age. It can lay up to two years effectively.

Yet, the domesticated duck is not originated in modern labs. Ancient people have domesticated the bird from mallard duck. Indian runner is slimmer and higher than the ancestor.

The egg is 80 gram weight. It is light blue color. The yolk sac is bigger than the domesticated Chicken egg. Some duck lay red yolk sac egg. It is because the duck eat prawn or dried prawn. It is more expensive than common duck eggs.

The farmer usually salts this egg with salt and burned hay. In Philippine, the farmer sells embryo duck eggs. They hatch the eggs for 18 days only until the embryo grow inside the egg shell.

The Indian runner drake is almost similar with mallard color duck. The drake head's is light green color. Indian runner has variety color like buff, brown, black, black blue, and white.

Like the ancestor, they can fly high. In West Sumatra, the farmer organizes flying duck competition yearly. The duck are forced to fly to the finish line. The winner is the duck that arrive in finish line first.

Indian runner is the bad mother. It cannot incubate its egg moreover other fowl eggs. Some breeder use chicken or Muscovy duck to hatch the duck eggs. Alternatively, they use incubator machine to hatch it. In Bali and Borneo, the farmer incubates the eggs with paddy skin.

The sexing is quite easy. The drake differs with the hen from its tail. The drake has curly tail. The drake sound is also louder than the female. Some farmer can differ the duckling by pinching the feet. The farmer can differs the duckling sound. To be honest, I am not good at it.

Indian runner are distributed at South East Asia. In Indonesia, There are so many various strain of Indian runner such as Itik Bali, Itik Magelang, Itik Cirebon, Itik Tegal, Itik Bali, Itik Alabio and others. The most beautiful is Bali duck. It has crest in hand and is white color.

Most the duck is risen in beach region. The farmer feed the duck sea fish or dried fish. The farmer just uses simple diet for this bird. They mix rice, paddy, and dried fish.

In Bangkok, people raise it with fish. The duck is allowed swim at fish pool. Off course the, the farmer will not allow the duck swim at the small fish pool.

Photo: From Steve 2008

The duck is useful for pest control too. The farmer often releases the duck at paddy rice to kill golden snail that is paddy rice pest.

Read Also :
Bali Duck : Crested Duck From Bali
Cayuga Duck: A Native American Duck
Ancona Duck: English Duck
Anatomy of  Duck
American Game Fowl

Cayuga Duck : A Native American Duck

Cayuga is an origin American breed duck that has beautiful green beetle color. This bird is almost black in color include the bill and the feet. As where is gets name, The Cayuga origin is Cayuga Lake. Now the duck is everywhere.

Beside the black beautiful color, the duck is also care for its meat and egg. The drake is quite heavy, weighing three kilogram while the hen is two half kilograms. The hen produces big egg, which size is 50-60 grams or similar to Rhode Island Red eggs. Due the hen lays around 200 eggs in a year, it is good for laying egg duck. The hen will go broody.

Photo by : Fabio Verenesi