My pleasure. I haven't had time to go through all of my chicken pictures from Vilafranca (honestly I didn't get many because the crowds were huge), but I'm attaching below a photo of the eggs I bought at the supermarket here in Girona a couple of days ago to cook in the apartment I'm staying in...
Hi Canoe, I did make some contacts, and through my interpreters found that most breeders are breeding for higher meat yields nowadays rather than traditional physical characteristics and egg color. In fact, most of the roosters and hens I saw for sale were huge and lacked the carnation combs; I...
Hi Folks, I've been extremely busy lately and haven't posted anything for months. I am here in Catalonia teaching a two-week course, and my colleagues here in Girona surprised me this morning with an unexpected trip to the Penedesenca Festival in Vilafranca del Penedes! It was a lot of fun, and...
Our temperature right now is 112 degrees. Yesterday got up to 115 here in the Phoenix area. I've noticed that my Pene hens are making a duck-like quacking sound. It's really cute, and it really does sound like ducks. I'm wondering if they sound this way because of their panting in the heat. None...
Lucky! Mine started laying about six weeks ago, but the eggs are still quite small and light-colored. I think they'll get darker as they continue to lay.
Mine hatched on November 19, and they only just started laying about two weeks ago, so you might still have about a month to go. Let's hope yours start earlier!I was getting impatient too.
Notice all the contact information for the area's breeders in the photo above!
Incidentally, below is the website for the regional Penedensenca breeders association and a Youtube video of the festival (a 2009 video...maybe some of you have seen it) and a PDF program for the 2015 event. Even...
The son of my Catalonian colleague attended the Festival del gall de Vilafranca del Penedés in Catalonia last December and just sent me a few photos. So, the following photos are courtesy of Alex Guia.
Those lucky attendees!
Thanks for the suggestions, Ron and Guy. I'll keep doing what it takes. Guy, the dark egg I posted above with the New Hampshire egg is one of the penes with brown or white feathering. Those two girls have spent the last two months with the New Hampshires of the same age, learning how to lay in...
I ended up with five roosters and six hens from my November hatch. Two hens had some white and brown in them, so I separated them from the breeders and put them in with my general laying flock. I have four breeding hens that are very nice looking and I think quite true to Black Pene...
Wow, those eggs look awesome! I hope you have a great hatch. Below is our second pene egg (compared to a New Hampshire egg) from the November hatching. My daughter ate the first one--a double yolker. Thanks again to Guy for the nice hatching eggs. Every day I go out there anxiously hoping for...
Update on Shelly...she's doing great (see first photo), and in fact did turn out to be a she. The second photo shows two nice little pullets and a nice cockerel spending time with some New Hampshires. All of these Penedesencas hatched on or around November 19, 2015, from eggs I got from...