Calling all Penedesencas Owners/Breeders

[Hangtown Farms]

I picked up 2 new crele's last week. I have been contacting people on the penedesenca website. seems many our not raising them much anymore.

so my questions. how do we maintain this breed best? I have found a few people off the site that raise them. seems the larger hatcheries quality on the partridge is off.
I am looking forward to getting my sandhill order though and trying them.

Partridge seem to be much more flighty than my crele and white emp's almost like a different breed.
Not sure on the wheaten or black's

Hopefully we can band together and come up with ideas. I am tired of hearing on the olive egger thread. why not just use a Black Copper Maran

 

[ronott1]

I picked up 2 new crele's last week. I have been contacting people on the penedesenca website. seems many our not raising them much anymore.

so my questions. how do we maintain this breed best? I have found a few people off the site that raise them. seems the larger hatcheries quality on the partridge is off.
I am looking forward to getting my sandhill order though and trying them.

Partridge seem to be much more flighty than my crele and white emp's almost like a different breed.
Not sure on the wheaten or black's

Hopefully we can band together and come up with ideas. I am tired of hearing on the olive egger thread. why not just use a Black Copper Maran

I hear you! Marans are nice, but my answer is that unless you do special things, they die in the heat where I live. Cream Legbars do not do well in the heat either, so breeding them with penedesencas should help make the OEs heat hardy. Not going to happen if you breed CLs with Marans.

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

I picked up 2 new crele's last week. I have been contacting people on the penedesenca website. seems many our not raising them much anymore.

so my questions. how do we maintain this breed best? I have found a few people off the site that raise them. seems the larger hatcheries quality on the partridge is off.
I am looking forward to getting my sandhill order though and trying them.

Partridge seem to be much more flighty than my crele and white emp's almost like a different breed.
Not sure on the wheaten or black's

Hopefully we can band together and come up with ideas. I am tired of hearing on the olive egger thread. why not just use a Black Copper Maran

they look good!!! I'm not really sure y this breeds is not more popular...they are one of the best homesteaders/free ranging breeds out there IMHO... i know my email in-box gets about 1 email a day with ppl asking for them... i think right now the most important thing for the breed is to just get the numbers up as much as possible... and get new breeders that will really breed them... they are all from one importation so there is no real good way to out-cross them to get new blood... that is y we need more breeders if u have your flock and breed them for 5 years and never introduce outside bloodlines into them they will have genetically diverted enough that when u cross them with another persons birds that have been doing the same thing u will get the out-cross u need to keep going...

i have culled my white Emp's really hard the last 3 years... still not really 2 happy with what i am getting tho... i think i need to get some new birds to add to the mix next spring... i hope after that i can really start to spread them around... and when i get the money to build more pens i would like to get all the colors and work with all of them... but i make 13$ an hour so its hard to buy the materials to build new pens

 

[nicalandia]

they look good!!! I'm not really sure y this breeds is not more popular...they are one of the best homesteaders/free ranging breeds out there IMHO...

and They are an Autosexable breed at that...

 

[Oldhound]

Cooper those are nice pullets . There are probably many reasons why folks give up raising chickens in general and then Penes in particular.Breeding lines of purebred anything takes knowhow . Some people seem more inclined to dedicate the time and effort to long term breeding than others, I can't count the times I've heard "how hard can it be". Also the care and feeding of poultry is a lot more expensive in reality than it appears to the outsider . The emotional toll of losing birds cannot be imagined when one is starting out. You will eventually experience loss from predators or disease and having your flock decimated is traumatic indeed . Another factor with the rarer breeds is nothing less than greed . I was offered day old Black Pene chicks at $ 8.00 each, minimum order 30 chicks, plus $30.00 express mail shipping. That totals $ 240.00 for a breed that isn't stabilized.I simply could not afford to spend that amount on day old chicks. Bless them if they can sell them at that price but I doubt if that will help make the breed popular. Don't get me wrong I Do Not think that it is Wrong to ask a fair price but prices two or three times higher than hatchery prices will send buyers to the hatchery and away from private breeders, High prices for proven show winners is another thing altogether.
In the mean time I will plod along trying to improve my birds by selective breeding and rigid culling . By the way , I do not set myself up as any kind of expert on anything .

 

[Hangtown Farms]

they look good!!! I'm not really sure y this breeds is not more popular...they are one of the best homesteaders/free ranging breeds out there IMHO... i know my email in-box gets about 1 email a day with ppl asking for them... i think right now the most important thing for the breed is to just get the numbers up as much as possible... and get new breeders that will really breed them... they are all from one importation so there is no real good way to out-cross them to get new blood... that is y we need more breeders if u have your flock and breed them for 5 years and never introduce outside bloodlines into them they will have genetically diverted enough that when u cross them with another persons birds that have been doing the same thing u will get the out-cross u need to keep going...

i have culled my white Emp's really hard the last 3 years... still not really 2 happy with what i am getting tho... i think i need to get some new birds to add to the mix next spring... i hope after that i can really start to spread them around... and when i get the money to build more pens i would like to get all the colors and work with all of them... but i make 13$ an hour so its hard to buy the materials to build new pens

Lol are you sure half of those emails are not mine

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Cooper those are nice pullets . There are probably many reasons why folks give up raising chickens in general and then Penes in particular.Breeding lines of purebred anything takes knowhow . Some people seem more inclined to dedicate the time and effort to long term breeding than others, I can't count the times I've heard "how hard can it be". Also the care and feeding of poultry is a lot more expensive in reality than it appears to the outsider . The emotional toll of losing birds cannot be imagined when one is starting out. You will eventually experience loss from predators or disease and having your flock decimated is traumatic indeed . Another factor with the rarer breeds is nothing less than greed . I was offered day old Black Pene chicks at $ 8.00 each, minimum order 30 chicks, plus $30.00 express mail shipping. That totals $ 240.00 for a breed that isn't stabilized.I simply could not afford to spend that amount on day old chicks. Bless them if they can sell them at that price but I doubt if that will help make the breed popular. Don't get me wrong I Do Not think that it is Wrong to ask a fair price but prices two or three times higher than hatchery prices will send buyers to the hatchery and away from private breeders, High prices for proven show winners is another thing altogether.
In the mean time I will plod along trying to improve my birds by selective breeding and rigid culling . By the way , I do not set myself up as any kind of expert on anything .

I ended up paying 70.00 for my two birds plus the 6 hour round trip it took. Which was high but now at least I have 5 crele hens which will give me a good start.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

they look good!!! I'm not really sure y this breeds is not more popular...they are one of the best homesteaders/free ranging breeds out there IMHO... i know my email in-box gets about 1 email a day with ppl asking for them... i think right now the most important thing for the breed is to just get the numbers up as much as possible... and get new breeders that will really breed them... they are all from one importation so there is no real good way to out-cross them to get new blood... that is y we need more breeders if u have your flock and breed them for 5 years and never introduce outside bloodlines into them they will have genetically diverted enough that when u cross them with another persons birds that have been doing the same thing u will get the out-cross u need to keep going...

i have culled my white Emp's really hard the last 3 years... still not really 2 happy with what i am getting tho... i think i need to get some new birds to add to the mix next spring... i hope after that i can really start to spread them around... and when i get the money to build more pens i would like to get all the colors and work with all of them... but i make 13$ an hour so its hard to buy the materials to build new pens

Great free rangers.. I agree and the smartest chickens I have had.
I only have the 2 emp hens and a rooster but once I start getting eggs I can get you some and maybe we can trade or I can send you some youngsters. I could throw creles in to if you want.

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

we will stay in touch... i am setting every egg i get... they are finally laying pretty good... i just set 14 eggs today...

if i was u i would be setting every egg they lay all year...

Great free rangers.. I agree and the smartest chickens I have had.
I only have the 2 emp hens and a rooster but once I start getting eggs I can get you some and maybe we can trade or I can send you some youngsters. I could throw creles in to if you want.

 

[ronott1]

I moved my Partridge Penes outside this weekend. I took some pictures. It is hard to get pictures of them. They move around too fast.