Calling all Penedesencas Owners/Breeders

[ronott1]

I just read this entire thread. A few days ago I decided to add a substantial number of thrifty, free ranging egg layers to my flock of Buckeyes. I wanted white and brown egg layers.

The terrain here is pretty wild and wooly with the only open grass area immediate being my yard. The rest is former farmland with 40 years or so of overgrowth. My chickens are protected from predators by my 2 dogs day and night and it really works well (crosses fingers).

I decided to order Anconas for the white egg layers and after a little searching stumbled across Penedesencas for the brown, while checking out Med breeds. They seemed a perfect fit. I had purchased from Cackle last year and had thought to give Privett a try this year so I gave them a call. They told me they had the wheaten variety available Jun 08 hatch. I ordered 50 pullets each of both the Ancona and Penedesencas for a June 10 delivery date. No cockerels as I don't intend to breed.

Then I started reading this thread from the very beginning with all its broken links and missing photos, following along as you guys chart the course of Penedesencas while shipping eggs, hatching chicks, fighting city governments and establishing the PenedesencaUSA website. You all must be congratulated for sharing your knowledge. I didn't expect to see the same players at the end of this thread. You can imagine my surprise and disappointment at the mention of Welp and Privett at the end. Even when ordering from a hatchery I hold a little hope that I may end up with some genetic winners. Now that small chance seems even more remote. I will be satisfied if the birds I get forage well, are predator savvy, are thrifty, vigorous and lay well.

Now i wait...

Congratulations on getting them from anywhere!

They will probably retain a lot of the characteristics that make them good for what you want. Do not expect the egg color to be as dark as it should be.

Post pictures and updates as they grow.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

.... Now that small chance seems even more remote. I will be satisfied if the birds I get forage well, are predator savvy, are thrifty, vigorous and lay well.

Now i wait...

You should at least get those things.
My blacks lay very well.

Other breeds that may do well in OK for white layers are Minorca and Jaerhon.
But don't let me talk you out of Penedesencas. We need more people aware, raising them and spreading the word.

 

[karenerwin]

I vote raccoon, possibly opossum. That's about what they'll eat.
Weasels rarely eat any of the prey. They'll lap blood from the wound. They also won't leave any birds alive. Unless an escaped pet, we don't have ferrets here. Members of the weasel family in MO include the least, long tailed, mink, otter, skunk, mink and badger.
Raccoons can squeeze into very small gaps and are among the best climbers. They are one of the few animals that can descend a tree head first. If they can climb a sheer wall, they can certainly climb a fence - no matter how high.

This one shows how incredibly strong they are and the tight space they can squeeze through (toward the end).

smart

In this photo, the two on the right and the near one on the left are girls.

Thanks for the info @ChickenCanoe, I am thinking that you are correct in that it is probably a raccoon that has been enjoying free chicken dinner at my expense. I have a trap out, so hopefully I'll catch it. I was thinking that the ferret was probably an escapee and wasn't sure if it had been lost for a while or not.

 

[BlackBriars]

Thanks both of you. I will post pics of them and we can all pick them apart together!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks for the info @ChickenCanoe, I am thinking that you are correct in that it is probably a raccoon that has been enjoying free chicken dinner at my expense. I have a trap out, so hopefully I'll catch it. I was thinking that the ferret was probably an escapee and wasn't sure if it had been lost for a while or not.

It?
Unless you live at high elevation in the Rockies (above 10,000 ft.) or in extremely arid desert and you live between central Canada and the Panama canal, you have many raccoons.
And after you trap them, more will move in to replace them.
Same goes for most predators other than bears or mountain lions.


















Good luck with it.

 

[karenerwin]

It?
Unless you live at high elevation in the Rockies (above 10,000 ft.) or in extremely arid desert and you live between central Canada and the Panama canal, you have many raccoons.
And after you trap them, more will move in to replace them.
Same goes for most predators other than bears or mountain lions.


















Good luck with it.

LOL!! While I do know that we have many raccoons here and that more move in when some "leave" I'd like to think ( or pretend) that we don't have quite as many as the last 4 pictures do!!!
I always think raccoons are cute until they start eating my chickens..

I have 15 Black Penedesenca eggs due to hatch this coming Thursday.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Good luck on your hatch. How's the egg color?

I've caught 2 raccoons in a night more than once.

 

[karenerwin]

Good luck on your hatch. How's the egg color?

I've caught 2 raccoons in a night more than once.

I think the egg color is pretty good. I'll take a picture tomorrow night when I remove the egg turner for lockdown. I've seen (on the trail cam) possums, coons & skunks all in 1 night, but this was the first time I had seen more than 1 coon in the same photo. This time I weighed the eggs instead of trying to candle them, otherwise, I have just left them alone. For the Easter HAL, most of the eggs I set were clears. There were 2 that had fully developed chicks that just never hatched, 1 looked like it had internally pipped & then quit. So I can't do any worse than that! Well, I guess I could, because that hatch I was also incubating eggs for a friend and some of those did hatch. I guess I'll know in another 4 days! The temps were much more stable this time, so I think I'll have much better results.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

I just read this entire thread. A few days ago I decided to add a substantial number of thrifty, free ranging egg layers to my flock of Buckeyes. I wanted white and brown egg layers.

The terrain here is pretty wild and wooly with the only open grass area immediate being my yard. The rest is former farmland with 40 years or so of overgrowth. My chickens are protected from predators by my 2 dogs day and night and it really works well (crosses fingers).

I decided to order Anconas for the white egg layers and after a little searching stumbled across Penedesencas for the brown, while checking out Med breeds. They seemed a perfect fit. I had purchased from Cackle last year and had thought to give Privett a try this year so I gave them a call. They told me they had the wheaten variety available Jun 08 hatch. I ordered 50 pullets each of both the Ancona and Penedesencas for a June 10 delivery date. No cockerels as I don't intend to breed.

Then I started reading this thread from the very beginning with all its broken links and missing photos, following along as you guys chart the course of Penedesencas while shipping eggs, hatching chicks, fighting city governments and establishing the PenedesencaUSA website. You all must be congratulated for sharing your knowledge. I didn't expect to see the same players at the end of this thread. You can imagine my surprise and disappointment at the mention of Welp and Privett at the end. Even when ordering from a hatchery I hold a little hope that I may end up with some genetic winners. Now that small chance seems even more remote. I will be satisfied if the birds I get forage well, are predator savvy, are thrifty, vigorous and lay well.

Now i wait...

thank you for thinking of them. Please post progress pics. there is a good chance you will get all the great qualities of Penedesenca .im not familiar with what Privetts quality is or where they got there breeders but wheaten are very rare. i think the wheaten in general has been mixed with partridge often. the roosters are similar but this has caused some confusion in breeding.
our local tractor supply had partridge last year and a local got some and they ended up looking spot on so who knows?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Tractor Supply with Penedesencas. Now there's a shocker. How much were they?