Mixing Black Feathered Spanish Breeds

[Thomas Lamprogiorgos]

General opinions about the lightweight Spanish breeds.

What do they have in common?
Pearl white or off white eggs.
Big eggs.
Black feathers and legs.
Smaller than the dual purpose breeds, heavier than the commercial leghorn.
The best pasture to egg conversion ratio.
Bright red huge combs, single combed Mediterranean characteristic.

Will I take the best of these characteristics if I cross these breeds?

Are these breeds sensitive to mycoplasmosis?

The criteria that divided these spanish treasures into many different breeds were for the show field and not for the utility. Why do we, humans, convert an animal breed into a model for shows?

 

[ronott1]

Penedesenca chickens are light and lay very nice brown eggs. They have good feed conversion compared to Marans.

@ChickenCanoe Black Penedesenca

 

[ChickenCanoe]

General opinions about the lightweight Spanish breeds.

What do they have in common?
Pearl white or off white eggs.
Big eggs.
Black feathers and legs.
Smaller than the dual purpose breeds, heavier than the commercial leghorn.
The best pasture to egg conversion ratio.
Bright red huge combs, single combed Mediterranean characteristic.

Will I take the best of these characteristics if I cross these breeds?

Are these breeds sensitive to mycoplasmosis?

The criteria that divided these Spanish treasures into many different breeds were for the show field and not for the utility. Why do we, humans, convert an animal breed into a model for shows?

In my experience, not very many of those characterizations are true.
It is true that most Mediterranean breeds lay white eggs but a few lay extremely dark eggs.
Most breeders of Spanish breeds (in Spain) do so to preserve unique characteristics not necessarily for showing. Some, especially Penedesenca breeders, are committed to raising organic pastured birds that strive for vigor. Black Penedesencas are a dual purpose bird with a white earlobe but lay very dark eggs as do the 3 egg varieties of the breed: Crele, Wheaten and Partridge.

While there are several black breeds that may look similar to the untrained eye, there are a lot of variations with unique characteristics that IMO, shouldn't be crossed up but kept in their pure form since many are very rare.
They are all spectacular birds in their own right and mixing them will give you nothing but barnyard mutts. You can mix any breeds to accomplish that.

The Basque Hen aka Euskal Oiloa comes in an all black variety. They lay fairly large brown eggs and have red earlobes. Roosters weigh in at nearly 8 lbs.
The Castellana Negra lays a lot of white eggs. Cocks are about 7 pounds. They look very similar to black Penedesencas except of the single comb as opposed to the carnation comb but I'm not positive any are in the US.
Catalanas, also called Prat are a very meaty 8 lb. bird developed from cochins and lay a large white egg. They don't have an all black variety but have a black tail.
The Pinta Asturiana or Pita Pinta is a good size, nearly 9 lb. cock but not pure black, they are black and white mottled similar to Anconas. They lay a tinted egg.
White Faced Black Spanish are a very old breed admitted to the APA in the 1800s but record of them date to the 1500s in Britain. Large chalk white eggs.
With no pure black variety, the Empordanesa shares qualities with Penedesencas including white lobes, dark eggs and carnation combs. Only the white has been brought to the US.
I'm sure there are other black breeds in Spain but not yet in the US that I know of.

I can't speak for all Spanish breeds but mine haven't been susceptible to any virulent pathogens.

 

[ronott1]

In my experience, not very many of those characterizations are true.
It is true that most Mediterranean breeds lay white eggs but a few lay extremely dark eggs.
Most breeders of Spanish breeds (in Spain) do so to preserve unique characteristics not necessarily for showing. Some, especially Penedesenca breeders, are committed to raising organic pastured birds that strive for vigor. Black Penedesencas are a dual purpose bird with a white earlobe but lay very dark eggs as do the 3 egg varieties of the breed: Crele, Wheaten and Partridge.

While there are several black breeds that may look similar to the untrained eye, there are a lot of variations with unique characteristics that IMO, shouldn't be crossed up but kept in their pure form since many are very rare.
They are all spectacular birds in their own right and mixing them will give you nothing but barnyard mutts. You can mix any breeds to accomplish that.

The Basque Hen aka Euskal Oiloa comes in an all black variety. They lay fairly large brown eggs and have red earlobes. Roosters weigh in at nearly 8 lbs.
The Castellana Negra lays a lot of white eggs. Cocks are about 7 pounds. They look very similar to black Penedesencas except of the single comb as opposed to the carnation comb but I'm not positive any are in the US.
Catalanas, also called Prat are a very meaty 8 lb. bird developed from cochins and lay a large white egg. They don't have an all black variety but have a black tail.
The Pinta Asturiana or Pita Pinta is a good size, nearly 9 lb. cock but not pure black, they are black and white mottled similar to Anconas. They lay a tinted egg.
White Faced Black Spanish are a very old breed admitted to the APA in the 1800s but record of them date to the 1500s in Britain. Large chalk white eggs.
With no pure black variety, the Empordanesa shares qualities with Penedesencas including white lobes, dark eggs and carnation combs. Only the white has been brought to the US.
I'm sure there are other black breeds in Spain but not yet in the US that I know of.

I can't speak for all Spanish breeds but mine haven't been susceptible to any virulent pathogens.

Thanks for the good information Guy!