@minnehaha
I thought I'd chime in on this extremely rare breed.
I just posted this elsewhere.
Penedesenca are chickens from the Penedes region in the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain. They and the Empordanesa from the Emporda region, also in Catalonia, are the only chickens in the world with white earlobes yet lay a brown egg. They're also the only ones that are supposed to have a carnation comb. The brown egg is one of the darkest eggs in the chicken world.
There are 4 varieties. Partridge, wheaten and crele are the egg varieties. The black is the only DP variety. The Black Penedesenca is famous in Spain for the quality of its meat. There is a foodie festival the last weekend before Christmas every year to celebrate the bird. Fira del Gall or Fair of the Rooster celebrates the revival of the famous cock of Penedes - the Black Penedesenca rooster - the star of the show. The festival is primarily about wine and poultry. Penedes is one of the first wine regions of Europe. There are exhibitions of chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, wine tastings and food competitions with restaurants all preparing dishes with the Penedesenca as the main course.
There are pens of live roosters that people can select. They sell for $50 each and they're processed right there and that is the choice for Christmas dinner.
http://www.penedesencausa.com/home.html
http://www.galldelpenedes.cat/#!fira-del-gall/c20hn
http://www.gallpenedes.com/#!gall-del-peneds/cw1t
http://www.firadelgall.com/html/lafiradelgall/index.html
http://www.gallpenedes.com/#!raca-penedesenca/c1bbg
Marans, Penedesencas, Welsummers and some lines of Barnevelders and Langshans lay dark eggs.
I had Welsummers and loved the dark eggs so wanted to try another breed. I realized the Marans was common but Penedesencas were very rare. Being me, I wanted something more obscure so I searched for them for a couple years before the opportunity to obtain them came up. After more than 30 breeds, they have become my favorite breed.
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