Calling all Penedesencas Owners/Breeders

[jeremy]

Quote:
I have 3 that are colored like that.

What does it mean, exactly? Will they not be Wheaten when they are older?

 

[sjcolorwing]

If it or they feather out colored like a wheaten female they are wheaten that carry something else, (usually its the partridge gene) . If they feather out as males , since the impure wheaten male looks similar to the partridge male then its really a toss as both have pencil marks in the neck hackle. Comparatively speaking the eb or partridge male tends to have more. Since the Penedesenca wheaten is suppose to be recessive wheaten the males tend to show some pencil in the neck hackle. Dominant wheaten if they are pure have clean neck hackles. Its a strange catagory as the recessive wheaten is such because they carry darkening genes that are recessive. If you breed it out they become dominant wheaten. Its hard to breed out. After a while you can sort of guess which are partridge roosters and which are wheaten as chicks if you band or mark them. The impure wheaten male will tend to have a more blurred patttern on the back. The partridge male will have a more clear pattern. The lines on the back may break or run a bit off but thats from the autosomal barring gene that the partridge carries, as it tends to break the pattern on the back up a bit. If they have empordanesa blood in them the pattern on the back can become blurred out but darker in color than the rest of the down color. This is caused from the columbian gene and is also marked on the forhead as a couple of dots or sometimes just one dot. Certain patterns on chicks that have pattern it tells their genetics that they carry, even hidden ones that wont show in the feathering later. If you learn them it can be a good tool , and tells you alot when they hatch. Unfortunately wheaten tend to be clear unless they carry other stuff. I dont know if this is a hard fast rule on wheaten, but it tends to be so far. I mention the one on empordanesa , because as time goes by , it will probably become more common for that to pop up in them also. This is because some folks want to promote the two breeds as one or closely related. They are a little bit, as they introduced Penedesenca blood into them and changed the egg shell color of the empordaesa from light pink to the dark shell color. Other than that they come from two distant places in the Catalan region of Spain.
Another trait to watch for is good white earlobes that are solid white. You can be suspicous if much red is showing especially in males. This tends to be more of a problem in the black penedesenca, but since empordanesa dont always have white earlobes then that can dilute those genetics in the other two penedesenca, (wheaten and partridge), that most use to breed to the empordanesa. This may sound confusing, but as time goes by you will tend to pay more attention to the chicks and you'll learn as you go. And to be careful when you go to add new blood to the ones you have established. Hope this helps. So you may want to mark those with lines so that if any are wheaten females you will know which ones are carring something else. They may as feathered out look very much alike.

 

[jeremy]

Wow, thanks for the information.

I'm kind of at a loss now. I was under the impression that these chicks were pure Wheaten Penes when I bought them, whether that fact still remains true is questionable, right? Because they aren't necessarily crosses they could just potentially carry genetics that aren't only Wheaten. I had planned on using them for a breeding project but now I'm unsure as to whether I should move forward not knowing what all lies in their background. What are your thoughts?

 

[sjcolorwing]

Well you can use the ones that dont show any pattern as chicks. They should be ok. Of course you can breed them together it will seperate and you will still get some regular wheaten. Since the ones with pattern could be eb or wheaten with other just always try to mark them. I take pictures of them after a few days old and then later and then after the molt. I am getting old and find I dont remember like I use to. And the patterns on the chicks gets hard to remember. Especially when you find out a dash and a dot equals some other new thing. Who can remember if there was a crooked line on the back or what ever. And there is alot they dont know. Dont give up its hard to find a group or breed that dosent have problems. We all learn as we go. Even the champs.

 

[jeremy]

Quote:
Thanks for the encouraging words.

The older of the lighter colored chicks, the ones that appear to be pure Wheaten already is showing signs of being a roo. Large comb, thick legs and a very assertive personality. So that's good I guess. I'll just cross my fingers and hope that the younger light chick doesn't decide to crow too.

 

[NoSkiveez]

Hello everyone!

Over the past few months I have been considering adding some Penedesenca and empordanesa to my flock (forgive my poor spelling) however I would like to get from a breeder over a hatchery but I have not found any chicks locally. I'm assuming getting hatching eggs is my best bet. One of the first things I was attracted to about these breeds is that they are heat hardy and that they lay very dark eggs.

Does anyone have a photo of a penedesenca egg with a marans egg?

Are the eggs considerably darker or is the comparison pretty similar in color?

How many different color/varieties are there. I'm seeing wheaten and partridge, is there anything else?

I'm hoping to get eggs in the fall (too hot to ship eggs into AZ) but will definately be lurking.

 

[speckledhen]

Some of your Pene owners should post on the Dark Eggs thread! Would love to see those pics over there.

 

[josh44]

Quote:
There are 4 colors recognized in penedesenca .
1 wheaton,
2 creole,
3 partridge,
4 Black.

 

[josh44]

HERE ARE SOME PICS OF MY DARK EGG LAYERS & THEIR EGGS. HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY.

HERE IS SOME PICS OF MY PENEDESENCA & THEIR EGGS IN THE INCUBATOR
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MY MARANS & THEIR EGGS ON AN EGG TURNER.

MY WELSUMMER & THEIR EGGS

 

[le neige homme]

Josh, that BCM rooster is one fine specimen.