Black Penedesenca Hatching Eggs

[Akrnaf2]

I appreciate you my friend.

Thanks, it is mutual.

 

[warid]

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Hatching eggs from my flocks of this extremely rare breed.
The eggs will come in the special foam egg shippers pictured above.
Shipping and foam cost for up to 25 eggs is $20 in the continental US.
Eggs are $4 each up to 15 eggs. 16-25 eggs are $3.50 each.
I will need about 3 days advance notice to collect eggs for you depending on how many you want.

Penedesencas are not yet in the APA.
All four varieties, (Black, Crele, Partridge, Wheaten) as well as White Empordanesa were imported into the US around 2000.
The two breeds, Penedesenca being from Penedes and Empordanesa being from Emporda, are two regions of the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain on the French border near Andorra.
Penedesencas and Empordanesas are the only breeds with white earlobes and lay a brown egg. They are also the only breeds with a carnation comb (also called a clavel and kings comb)
They are ancient breeds and were still a hodgepodge of colors as late as 1900 with black and partridge being prominent. The first known documented writing about the breed was in 1920 when efforts were made to conserve and standardize them. There were quite a few farms that raised them but fell out of favor when interest turned to new foreign breeds.
By 1980 they were nearly extinct. At that time, veterinarian Antonio Jordá visiting area farms and farmers' markets, made a collection of fertile eggs and adult specimens until he gathered a population of about 300 hens from which Dr. Amadeus Francesch standardized into the 4 Penedesenca varieties today of Black, Crele, Partridge and Wheaten.
The Black is the DP variety being about a pound or two heavier than the other three, which are egg varieties.
The black was long renown for the flavor of its meat. There is now an annual festival in Villafranca, Catalonia called Fira del Gall (Fair of the Rooster) and the Black Penedesenca is the star of the show. It is a foodie and wine affair. Penedes is the oldest wine region of Europe.
The festival dates back to medieval times but was declining in popularity till 1984 when it was reborn with the reemergence of the Black Penedesenca.
The fair is held the last weekend before Christmas and people come from far and wide to buy the bird for their Christmas dinner - a Black Penedesenca rooster. In 2014 the fair celebrated the 20th anniversary of bringing the bird back from the brink of extinction.
Sadly, Dr. Amadeu Francesch Vidal died last summer. He was very helpful trying to get the birds distributed around the world.
In Spain, the black variety has been toyed with to make it a larger meat bird. In the process, it lost the dark egg and the white lobes. So now there is the 'improved' and the classic black. The classic is the only one in the US and the variety I raise.

Hello. I'm Warid from Thailand. I'm interested in your hatching eggs. Can you ship hatching eggs to Thailand?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks for your interest but I don't think I'm prepared to perform the prerequisites listed in the following Thai requirements for shipping eggs from the US to Thailand.
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/regulations/vs/iregs/animals/downloads/th_requirement_DOC_USA_Feb2017.pdf

 

[h2oratt]

Very interesting. It looks like a breed I would like. What are the roosters like? Very aggressive to humans?
I have some pita pintas from caychris. The rooster were nice, didn’t get a great hatch rate. We need some new genes in the PP.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Not human aggressive at all. I've had several different breeds of roosters but the ones that always seemed to become aggressive to me were the Plymouth Rocks. That may just be anecdotal but in the case of Penedesencas, I've had hundreds of these roosters and never a human aggressive one. I usually raise up 20-30 cockerels a few times a year till breeding age to determine which will be my replacement breeders. Some of those live here for years. That lack of aggression may be due to my management techniques. I free range most of the birds and I don't make them lap pets, nor do I have the need to cuddle any of them. I let them out in the morning, let them do their thing and forage and lock them up at night. I only handle them at night. I don't appear to be a threat if I can avoid it by not walking directly toward them or move quickly among them. By the time they are mature, they walk right up to me but won't let me pick them up in the field.
I did the same with the Rocks but that didn't keep them from attacking.
You have a pretty mild climate so it may not be important to you but these Mediterranean birds are very heat tolerant. They also do well in cold. It can range from -19F to 115F here and I've never lost one to heat or cold - though the roosters' huge combs and wattles tend to take a hit from frostbite.
With some searches you'll see people call them flighty. However, I call them aloof. They just avoid human contact. They definitely don't fly over fences. Most of my fences are 3'. I've kept flocks of roosters inside a 2' fence. If a rare individual is inclined to get out, they'll look for a place to crawl under the fence.
This breed has become my favorite of all the 30+ breeds I've raised and the only one I've had for a few years. Before I had this breed, I occasionally lost birds to hawks. But since I've has a Black Penedesenca rooster running with each flock, no more losses.
I have lost a rooster to coyotes and a couple to the neighbor's husky malamutes.
This is a great forager and being so alert, very daytime predator resistant. On two occasions I've seen a fox grab an Orpington in the middle of the yard in the afternoon before the orp knew anything was afoot. I can't imagine this happening to a flock of this wary breed.

 

[Akrnaf2]

CC the pendensenca pullet that I have is the best layer I have had! I get 5-6 eggs a week! Wonderful layer!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

CC the pendensenca pullet that I have is the best layer I have had! I get 5-6 eggs a week! Wonderful layer!

X2
They are amazingly prolific layers.

 

[Akrnaf2]

X2
They are amazingly prolific layers.

And beautiful eggs too!
What is the standard hen egg weight?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Off the top of my head, I think it is 65 grams but I'll check on that.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

@Akrnaf2 I just found the European standards I translated,


Black Penedesenca Standards

The following is the best and most complete information I've gleaned from the Catalonian and Irish standards. Where the standards are different, I’ve noted that.

COLOR:

COMB, FACE and WATTLES: Red.

EAR LOBES: White enclosed by red.

EYES: Black, with dark honey iris color

BEAK: Black horn of ox.

SHANKS and TOES: Black slate.



EGGS:

Very dark reddish brown (Ireland) Intense reddish maroon (Spain)

140-160 eggs per year

over 65g (Ireland) 60g (Spain)



CHICK DOWN: Black with white under the neck, beside the eyes, in the abdominal zone and at the tip of the wings.

ROOSTER PLUMAGE: Tight to the body, lustrous metallic black in all sections with dark gray down.

HEN PLUMAGE: Like the rooster in all sections.

WEIGHT: Rooster: 2.5 to 3kg, (5.5 to 6.6 lbs.) Hen: 2 to 2.4kg, (4.4 to 5.3 lbs.)

Rooster Morphology

HEAD: Moderately elongated and wide.

FACE: Flat.

BEAK: Elongated, moderately curved and strong.

EYES: Medium size and oval.

COMB: Simple, mildly large, upright, well sitting on the head, flat, with five or six plain short peaks, with the last and the first smaller than the central ones. The rear spur, with an arched base has a tendency to go toward the back of the neck without touching it and with appendixes to each side of the posterior. The comb, viewed from behind, must resemble a flower.

WATTLES: Medium sized and hanging.(Ireland) Fairly large, pendulous and red (Spain)

EAR LOBES:

Mildly lengthened, lightly lined, very united to the head on the upper part, and suspended on the lower part. (Ireland)

Moderately elongated, oblong, slightly wrinkled close to the head at the top and hanging on the lower part. White surrounded with red. (Spain)

NECK: Regularly arched, proportionally long with respect to the body, with abundant hackle resting on the shoulders and back.

WINGS:

Big, well pleated and belted to the body. They mustn't surpass the body. (Ireland)

Large and carried inclined so the imaginary line running from tip to the ground form an angle approximately 45º to the ground, tight to the body without exceeding it.(Spain)

BACK: Wide, inclined from front to back and with abundant hackles, rounded and rather short.

BREAST: Wide, deep, elongated and prominent; with well arched ribs.

TAIL:

Developed, well populated with feathers and open with two longer feathers quite curved in the shape of a sickle, inserted in angle of 45º through the horizontal. (Ireland)

Sickle feathers inserted at an angle between 45º and 90º above the horizontal (Spain).

TORSO: Rather short, wide and tilted toward the back.

ABDOMEN: Not well developed

THIGHS: Half longitude (meaning in the center of the side of the body) and vigorous with tight plumage.

LEGS: Moderately lengthened, flat, very separate and free of feathers.

TOES: Four, strong, open and straight.

APPEARANCE: In harmony and vigorous



Hen Morphology

HEAD, FACE and BEAK: Like the rooster.

COMB: Simple, mildly big, with five or six teeth very definite and jagged, fall toward a side of the face and with appendixes like in the rooster.

WATTLES, EAR LOBES, WING, BACK and BREAST: Like in the rooster.

TAIL: Abundant, long and in angle between 40º and 45º through the horizontal.

THIGHS, SHANKS and TOES: Like those of the rooster.

APPEARANCE: Like that of the rooster.





Undesirable traits –

Discard criteria in Ireland:

a) Red at the ear lobes on more than one third of their surface.

b) Absence of reddish-brown coloration on the egg shell.

c) Absence of the appendixes at the comb.



Serious Defects in Spain:

a) any golden feathers

b) red or silver in the neck;