Chicken Breed Focus - Penedesenca

[Mirei81101]

I'm a Penedesenca breeder.

I've had over 30 breeds of chickens in my life. I had Welsummers that laid beautiful eggs and I wanted more dark layers. With research, I discovered only Marans, Welsummers, Penedesencas, Empordanesas,and some lines of Barnevelders and Langshans laid dark eggs.
I thought that Marans were fairly common and since I'm not common, I wanted something more unique or rare.
Wheaten, partridge and crele are egg varieties. The black is a DP variety. Since when breeding birds, I eat all the extra males, the black was my choice of variety.
Extremely rare birds as they are, it took me about a year to find my foundation stock.
They quickly outshone all other breeds for my liking.

In addition to the dark eggs, Black Penedesencas are famous in Spain for their meat qualities. They are considered organoleptically unique from other chickens. Not the same but on a par with French Bresse. There is an annual festival for the black Penedesenca rooster in Penedes on the weekend before Christmas called Fira del Gall (fair of the rooster).
It is a huge foodie event. Penedes is the first wine growing region of Europe and at the fair they feature all sorts of poultry. Area restaurants compete by preparing their best recipes utilizing the meat of the black Penedesenca.
There are usually about 1,000 BP roosters there that people select and pay $50 for the bird to be butchered and dressed on the spot that will be their Christmas dinner.
We only have the classic black variety in the US. There is now an improved version in Spain but in making a larger bird for meat, they lost the dark egg color and the white earlobe. To me, those are their most important qualities so I have no interest in the improved.

I think there are 2 possible reasons that these wonderful birds aren't more popular other than the fact that most people have never heard of them.
Lots of people want pet birds they can cuddle with. This isn't the breed for that, however, some of the people I've sold to have tamed them nicely.
The other reason is they are known by some to be flighty and I think that is a misnomer.
By nature, they avoid human contact - or anything non-chicken. But if not closely confined they are quite calm. They just need to know they have an escape path. They are very respectful of fences no matter how short. Most of my fences are 3' and the usual way they get out is by sneaking under, not flying over.
Once they reach a year of age, they aren't nearly as wary around me since they believe I'm not there to eat them and they come running when I go outside but I just can't pick one up like I could with Orps or JGs.
I much prefer this behavior because I can leave them all outside during the day and not be concerned about them.
For years, I've kept flocks of roosters in 2' pens. That makes them cheaper to keep.
Alert as they are, nothing can sneak up on them during the day nor drop down from the sky unobserved.
They see hawks coming long before I ever could. I hear them make the aerial predator call, walk outside and it will still be a while till the hawk appears.
I've seen a rooster take a hawk out of the air and then slowly stride back to where he sent the hens to hide.

They are quite heat hardy even in our humid conditions. I no longer worry about summer heat. They have also fared our extreme cold temps too. We hit -19F one night a couple years ago and my birds are in buildings with huge windows open on both the east and west. I've never lost a bird to cold. The roosters do tend to get frostbitten combs and wattles but I don't coddle them.
They are on organic pasture and usually organic fermented feed which I sometimes supplement with kelp and berries in winter.

As for the white earlobe, there is an additional breed that is also from Catalonia that lays dark eggs with a white earlobe. It is the Empordanesa. They come in several color varieties but only the white has been imported into the US. As the Penedesenca comes from the Penedes region, the Empordanesa comes from the Emporda region.

Good information, thank you.

 

[karenerwin]

I got my Black Penedesencas from ChickenCanoe. I wanted a breed that laid the dark "chocolate" eggs and while researching breeds ChickenCanoe introduced me to the Black Penedesencas.
I currently have 1 rooster, 2 hens & 1 pullet. One of the hens did go broody and hatched a couple of eggs (4). She would have hatched more of the Black Penedesenca eggs, except for human error on my part. She was the first broody I ever had. Of the 2 penedesenca eggs she hatched 1 made it. The other I found at a few days old out of the nest and on the very cold ground. I tried to warm it up, but it had been too long. I enjoy the breed very much and am working to expand my flock and keep the breed pure.

I was very excited to see the picture of my eggs in the incubator at the beginning of the article! I did hatch out 8 or 10 Black Penedesencas but all but 2 turned out to be cockerels!

 

[Gilmore768]

I wouldn't mind having some of those myself. You're in the area too. Hmmm.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I wanted to add a comment about the original post which states they are aggressive in a flock. I've never found that to be the case. They like other chickens, just not fond of mammals or birds of prey. They've always gotten along in mixed flocks and I've been able to mix birds from other flocks easily without them getting brutal with each other.


This is some of the information about Fira del Gall.
Besides being all about food and wine, it is about celebrating saving the bird from extinction.


http://www.galldelpenedes.cat/fira-del-gall-2015
http://www.llepadits.com/2015/12/fira-del-gall-19-i-20-de-desembre-a-vilafranca-del-penedes/
http://www.gourmetcatalunya.com/FIR...ERN/VILAFRANCA-DEL-PENEDES-FIRA-DEL-GALL.html
http://surtdecasa.cat/penedes/menjar-i-beure/diccionari-basic-de-la-fira-del-gall

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I wanted to add a comment about the original post which states they are aggressive in a flock. I've never found that to be the case. They like other chickens, just not fond of mammals or birds of prey. They've always gotten along in mixed flocks and I've been able to mix birds from other flocks easily without them getting brutal with each other.


This is some of the information about Fira del Gall.
Besides being all about food and wine, it is about celebrating saving the bird from extinction.


http://www.galldelpenedes.cat/fira-del-gall-2015
http://www.llepadits.com/2015/12/fira-del-gall-19-i-20-de-desembre-a-vilafranca-del-penedes/
http://www.gourmetcatalunya.com/FIR...ERN/VILAFRANCA-DEL-PENEDES-FIRA-DEL-GALL.html
http://surtdecasa.cat/penedes/menjar-i-beure/diccionari-basic-de-la-fira-del-gall

Thanks the added comment.

I also read they are better suited for free range. Perhaps, the aggression in a flock would be when confined to a run/coop only(?)

The links are great - don't understand a word of it

but enjoyed the bright and beautiful photos which tell a story on their own.

 

[karenerwin]

I took some pictures of my Black Penedesencas this evening. As a disclaimer, the rooster had a bad case of frost bite last winter when the tarp blew off the coop on a very windy & cold night. So his crown took significant damage, as did his wattles. He lost parts of his crown & pieces of his wattles. Since then, I enclosed that end of that coop with wood.


Rooster

Hen

Hen You can see how her crown flops over.



Pullet

 

[karenerwin]

 

[karenerwin]

Close up of the rooster. He was not real thrilled with me being in their enclosure taking pictures.

This is where he and the 2 hens sleep at night. The enclosed coop is available behind me, but this is where they prefer to sleep. Sometimes when they free range he wants to sleep in a bush near the coop. The hens stayed out a couple of times, but I guess they got tired of my picking them out of the bush after dark & putting them back in the enclosre, so now they come in on their own.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I took some pictures of my Black Penedesencas this evening. As a disclaimer, the rooster had a bad case of frost bite last winter when the tarp blew off the coop on a very windy & cold night. So his crown took significant damage, as did his wattles. He lost parts of his crown & pieces of his wattles. Since then, I enclosed that end of that coop with wood.


Rooster

Hen

Hen You can see how her crown flops over.



Pullet

@karenerwin I think your rooster is Handsome!

Your flock is beautiful! Thank you for sharing your photos

 

[Aquachick]

Chickencanoe how old are the chicks where you can see the huge difference in their combs? I just got my first 8 Penedesencas straight run and am curious to see how many pullets vs. roosters I received.