Penedesenca

Very pretty, but a little cooky. Great look out bird for predators. Will roost very high in the trees if allowed to free roam. Warms up with frequent treats but very untrusting of humans. Gorgeous feathering and funny floppy comb. Keep them around for their eggs, but will stop laying at the first sign of change or stress (over breeding rooster, new coop, seasons, etc). This is just my own personal experience.

The Penedesenca and Empordanesa lay very good numbers of dark brown to very dark brown eggs. ( the 140-160 on the description is incorrect imo)
expect 200 to 240 a year

This breed is flighty but not aggressive . The flightiness is what makes them so great at free ranging as they are super alert. Roosters are very good protectors of there flock.

Penedesenca are also very heat tolerant , rarely pant in our summer heat. They have large combs which can get frost damage in very cold areas.
Best bet to combat that seems to be good air circulation in the coops. This works well for me. we do not get bitter cold her in the low mountains of northern California but still get enough snow and frost.

As far as egg color.

Partridge seem to average the darkest eggs
Black , wheaten , and White Empordanesa just behind
Crele lay a lighter egg than the others but have the benefit of being Autosexing . grayish males with Darker Nut brown hens.
Occasionally I have seen rooster chicks that are brownish with greyish shoulders as well.

Empordanesa is a very close cousin and basically a White Penedesenca here in the states. In Spain there are Red and also Blue Tail I believe

In summary you will be very hard pressed to find any breed that is as alert and heat tolerant as a Penedesenca
especially when you throw in they can lay some of the darkest eggs around !

The Penedesenca breed does need help. We need more people to help by breeding them to the Spanish Standard

Resting after a hard night of pecking at my shell!

We just purchased the chicks this weekend. I will update my review when they are older. Our breeder is really impressed with them so we will keep our fingers crossed!

I have had two of these ladies and was mostly pleased with them, although I was hoping mine would lay a darker egg. I had them in with one Barnevelder hen in a chicken tractor and they all seemed to get along just fine, no pecking, but I upset the balance by trying to add more and they were pretty brutal, killing two younger chickens in short order.

I would say these are a great choice if you have a good-sized space and don't mean for them to be lap chickens. It's really nice to have such an unusual bird in your flock. I've just gotten one more again and eagerly await that first dark egg.