The Old Folks Home

[CanuckBock]

I really loved the read on Chanteclers.
I'm working on a similar project. Black Penedesencas. True, a skittish Mediterranean breed but it's the only variety of Pene meant to be DP. Most of my hens are a good size but I'd like to get more size on the roosters. I weigh them at intervals while growing and I agree that fast growth doesn't necessarily equate to adult size. That selection requires keeping many more adult roosters IMO. They'll never be a Cornish width bird but I think I can achieve a fair amount of meat.
Once the birds mature, they're much calmer and I can walk amidst them without them freaking out. Strangers are another story though. I think the skittishness/alertness is really important in the case of predators. Size, demeanor and egg color are tops on my agenda.

Flighty, skittish...means they are AWARE of their environment...won't find them all napping on the roost...up and at 'em. Do they ever go setty (thinking a non-setty breed like Leghorn origins perhaps) as I find having a clutch of eggs and raising a brood really chills a chicken girl out and makes her real dreamy to be around and handle. Being a Mom...yer mind goes to mush and sedates/calms one out...bwa ha ha....

What kind of weights...I see cocks at 8 pounds, hens at 5.5 pounds...is that about right or is that a stretch for now? Too bad not recognized in NA yet. Any real organized group working on them; five persons for five years?

I find the combs fascinating on Penedesencas. Got me all guessing what genetics are involved. Single comb with several "lobes" at the rear...Carnation or King's comb...Do you happen to know the genetic formula for it?

I am guessing workings (He gives more serrations in a single comb and makes it a tad larger too though Hèrissèe does lower sperm life expectancy), maybe Duplex (D "split comb" causes the back to divide) and Sigrid Van Dort says "side sprigs" which are "legal in the Spanish Penedescenas fowl, it a characteristic of the breed." She also says it takes 2 months to show up on males and longer on females. Is this true then? You cannot see the spilt in the end of the single for a time?

How prevalent are the proper King's comb expressions in your lines.

Not familiar with this breed and thought instantly, white eggs but WOW...even with white in the lobes, DARK eggs. Kewl and yeh, you got your work cut out for you in this breed!

Love the varieties I see them being...Créle, Partridge, Wheaten and your Blacks. Going with the self-black (Black Penny) will let you concentrate more on the other attributes like dark egg colour and maybe that spectacular gender specific comb style if it is a fickle thingy. I see the females end up with a droopy comb like Leggyhorns do. Those things in themselves might mean you gotta double mate them...males upright comb, females with the comb over...ha ha ha.



Warming up now, so we got snow. Saying plus ten (50F) by the weekend...agh...snow to ice to mud...spring may be sprung along with daylight savings time!



I decided yesterday that I could not stand it any longer and rousted a few of the F3's outta the Duece Coop for pickies, even at -25C was a whisk outside CLICK and back in...

T\this is Pewter's first hatch, she's on her second hatch and this boy is already crowing.

I personally figure some chickens are ROCK STARS...yes, leave me to my dementia but you look at him, look him in the eye and YOU tell me he is not confident, self-aware and knows what he is all about. You tell me this bird brain is dull and I'll give you a poke in the eye for it...hee hee....

​

Bro W used a very special Columbian male he produced in the first year of creating the Chantecler...I do believe I am on the right track...following in the originator of the breed's footsteps.





This one pictured below is from the second F3 Chantecler bantam project hatch I had this winter...two whites...now how blocky is this one White? Widdle block of tasty firm chickeness...no, not tempted to chew on a leg quite yet but that build sure screams MEAT! Poor thing... already drooled upon...but can't help myself...meaty chicken...

See the l00k I am getting... "Who's meaty there fat lady?"​

I decided to treat Rick and I (no real reason) and bake a quick coffee like cake. Recipe includes an EGG...so wow now...where EVER shall I ever get one of those?? An egg? What species of egg??

Fruit Cocktail Cake

1 cup Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 EGG
1 - 14 oz / 398 ml tin of Fruit Cocktail (including juice)
Brown Sugar for sprinkling on top / Butter for smearing on pan and then flouring / Cam for dousing on warm cake

Mix ingredients. Butter and flour a pan. Pour mixture into pan, drop pan gently a few times to remove bubbles so cake does not fall during cooking. Sprinkle brown sugar on top.

Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes (stick wooden toothpick in, comes out clean, it is cooked--careful not to burn it).

​

Serve with cream if you like (seniors need our CALCIUM!). Feel free to BURP!

When one gets older, we start breaking more and more of the rooles. Rules of conduct, rules of being civilized, rules of proper upstanding persons. Can you tell I have been wearing purple for ever???

Cakes are not for special occasions--who said that!
The fact you woke up and can move freely, now that IS an occasion to celebrate, eh?

And speaking of dessert...who ever said that dessert had to be eaten last at supper. We often have dessert BEFORE the meal...if you wait till after the main course, often you are too full or worse, Rick has dozed off in his chair or I have forgotten to tell him there is dessert and he's gone and taken his teeth out. This way if you have dessert FIRST...you get to enjoy the good things in life...not sleep through them or be unable to consume them.

So remember, always break rule #1, eat dessert FIRST at every meal...

Well OK...let me re-say that...maybe not at breaky but surely SECOND breakfast one can have jam or jelly on the toast...right? Did I say RIGHT old persons? Right...so if we all band together, nobody can say we are not right, right?

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Or ship small batches of hatched chicks. My first group of marans were in a tiny box and included 10 BCM and 1 lt sussex. Shipped in early summer, no losses. Might be more cost effective than trying to hatch dark eggs that have been shipped.

 

[ronott1]

Or ship small batches of hatched chicks. My first group of marans were in a tiny box and included 10 BCM and 1 lt sussex. Shipped in early summer, no losses. Might be more cost effective than trying to hatch dark eggs that have been shipped.

that is a good idea.

Jason might also be thinking about eggs from Spain since it is easier to get eggs certified.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Have you tried t he sanding method that CHookschick recommends?? I have wondered about other methods of removing the paint that does not involve shaing the eggs. For me that is the difficult part = holding the egg still while sanding. A shipped egg is already fragile, sanding seems like more abuse. Wet and rub??

 

[ronott1]

Have you tried t he sanding method that CHookschick recommends?? I have wondered about other methods of removing the paint that does not involve shaing the eggs. For me that is the difficult part = holding the egg still while sanding. A shipped egg is already fragile, sanding seems like more abuse. Wet and rub??

The eggs never seem to develop. They either were never fertile or died withing the first three days.

Sanding might help some though.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Flighty, skittish...means they are AWARE of their environment...won't find them all napping on the roost...up and at 'em. Do they ever go setty (thinking a non-setty breed like Leghorn origins perhaps) as I find having a clutch of eggs and raising a brood really chills a chicken girl out and makes her real dreamy to be around and handle. Being a Mom...yer mind goes to mush and sedates/calms one out...bwa ha ha....

What kind of weights...I see cocks at 8 pounds, hens at 5.5 pounds...is that about right or is that a stretch for now? Too bad not recognized in NA yet. Any real organized group working on them; five persons for five years?

I find the combs fascinating on Penedesencas. Got me all guessing what genetics are involved. Single comb with several "lobes" at the rear...Carnation or King's comb...Do you happen to know the genetic formula for it?

I am guessing workings (He gives more serrations in a single comb and makes it a tad larger too though Hèrissèe does lower sperm life expectancy), maybe Duplex (D "split comb" causes the back to divide) and Sigrid Van Dort says "side sprigs" which are "legal in the Spanish Penedescenas fowl, it a characteristic of the breed." She also says it takes 2 months to show up on males and longer on females. Is this true then? You cannot see the spilt in the end of the single for a time?

How prevalent are the proper King's comb expressions in your lines.

Not familiar with this breed and thought instantly, white eggs but WOW...even with white in the lobes, DARK eggs. Kewl and yeh, you got your work cut out for you in this breed!

Love the varieties I see them being...Créle, Partridge, Wheaten and your Blacks. Going with the self-black (Black Penny) will let you concentrate more on the other attributes like dark egg colour and maybe that spectacular gender specific comb style if it is a fickle thingy. I see the females end up with a droopy comb like Leggyhorns do. Those things in themselves might mean you gotta double mate them...males upright comb, females with the comb over...ha ha ha.



Warming up now, so we got snow. Saying plus ten (50F) by the weekend...agh...snow to ice to mud...spring may be sprung along with daylight savings time!



I decided yesterday that I could not stand it any longer and rousted a few of the F3's outta the Duece Coop for pickies, even at -25C was a whisk outside CLICK and back in...

T\this is Pewter's first hatch, she's on her second hatch and this boy is already crowing.

I personally figure some chickens are ROCK STARS...yes, leave me to my dementia but you look at him, look him in the eye and YOU tell me he is not confident, self-aware and knows what he is all about. You tell me this bird brain is dull and I'll give you a poke in the eye for it...hee hee....

​

Bro W used a very special Columbian male he produced in the first year of creating the Chantecler...I do believe I am on the right track...following in the originator of the breed's footsteps.





This one pictured below is from the second F3 Chantecler bantam project hatch I had this winter...two whites...now how blocky is this one White? Widdle block of tasty firm chickeness...no, not tempted to chew on a leg quite yet but that build sure screams MEAT! Poor thing... already drooled upon...but can't help myself...meaty chicken...

See the l00k I am getting... "Who's meaty there fat lady?"​

I decided to treat Rick and I (no real reason) and bake a quick coffee like cake. Recipe includes an EGG...so wow now...where EVER shall I ever get one of those?? An egg? What species of egg??

Fruit Cocktail Cake

1 cup Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 EGG
1 - 14 oz / 398 ml tin of Fruit Cocktail (including juice)
Brown Sugar for sprinkling on top / Butter for smearing on pan and then flouring / Cam for dousing on warm cake

Mix ingredients. Butter and flour a pan. Pour mixture into pan, drop pan gently a few times to remove bubbles so cake does not fall during cooking. Sprinkle brown sugar on top.

Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes (stick wooden toothpick in, comes out clean, it is cooked--careful not to burn it).

​

Serve with cream if you like (seniors need our CALCIUM!). Feel free to BURP!

When one gets older, we start breaking more and more of the rooles. Rules of conduct, rules of being civilized, rules of proper upstanding persons. Can you tell I have been wearing purple for ever???

Cakes are not for special occasions--who said that!
The fact you woke up and can move freely, now that IS an occasion to celebrate, eh?

And speaking of dessert...who ever said that dessert had to be eaten last at supper. We often have dessert BEFORE the meal...if you wait till after the main course, often you are too full or worse, Rick has dozed off in his chair or I have forgotten to tell him there is dessert and he's gone and taken his teeth out. This way if you have dessert FIRST...you get to enjoy the good things in life...not sleep through them or be unable to consume them.

So remember, always break rule #1, eat dessert FIRST at every meal...

Well OK...let me re-say that...maybe not at breaky but surely SECOND breakfast one can have jam or jelly on the toast...right? Did I say RIGHT old persons? Right...so if we all band together, nobody can say we are not right, right?

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

They're frequent setters. I only had 3 raise a clutch last year but once I had 9 pullets sharing a community nest and 8 of them went broody within days of each other. The lone girl out was lonely and didn't know what was wrong with her friends.

Here's one of my cockerels. Long and lean but looks just like the processed birds in Spain that are renown for flavor and have an annual festival to celebrate them. They also keep the head and legs on at the market so one knows that they are getting the real deal they are paying $50 for.



Jason has done a great job of getting the club/website rebooted. Organized group? IMO there are probably only 6 or so people that have had them that long and not all varieties.

IMO the carnation comb is fairly dominant. The white lobes, less so.







You probably know more about genetics than I but I'm trying to learn. I think it will be easier for me since I'm only working on black feathers.

The side sprigs start showing up within days on some of the cockerels.
Some of my hens have very floppy combs, some are more upright. Some flop too much, some not enough. Most of the roosters are appropriate. I'll worry about the hens combs later.
I have some issues with white mottling (mostly in hens) the occasional copper hackle in a rooster. Those flaws have been in the breed in Spain for a long time though so I'm not freaking out about it.
I'm trying to gather the funds for Sigrid Van Dort's books on feather genetics and genetic extremes.
I actually e-mailed her and she said carnation combs weren't in her book and she wasn't real familiar. When did you get her info about them?


On the recipe front

I'm not a vegan but I had an amazing lacto-ovo vegetarian sandwich today.
alfalfa sprouts
red onion
avocado
English cucumber
tomato
arugula
white cheddar cheese
pumpernickel rye

Or ship small batches of hatched chicks. My first group of marans were in a tiny box and included 10 BCM and 1 lt sussex. Shipped in early summer, no losses. Might be more cost effective than trying to hatch dark eggs that have been shipped.

I think the idea of the experiment of shipping pre-incubated eggs is to see if it works. I also think the darker, thicker eggs don't lose weight as fast so I weigh rather than worry about humidity until the last couple days.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I never had a "good" hatch with BCM eggs in the incubator. From shipped eggs1-2 chicks was a blessing . Or when I put my own eggs in to hatch, I expected highe than I got: While better than shipped eggs, still not as good a rate as my other eggs. Then I used broodies. As chicks hatched I added more eggs and chick went into brooder. MUCH better hatch rate.

Obviously, shipped eggs have additional problems.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Have you tried t he sanding method that CHookschick recommends?? I have wondered about other methods of removing the paint that does not involve shaing the eggs. For me that is the difficult part = holding the egg still while sanding. A shipped egg is already fragile, sanding seems like more abuse. Wet and rub??

Unlike most brown eggs, the color seems to be within the calcium like blue eggs. I can rub and rub and they're still the same color.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I never had a "good" hatch with BCM eggs in the incubator. From shipped eggs1-2 chicks was a blessing . Or when I put my own eggs in to hatch, I expected highe than I got: While better than shipped eggs, still not as good a rate as my other eggs. Then I used broodies. As chicks hatched I added more eggs and chick went into brooder. MUCH better hatch rate.

Obviously, shipped eggs have additional problems.

My last hatch with all Penedesenca eggs was very good. In the past, it was incubator problems when they didn't go well.

 

[Arielle]

I dry hatch-- no water until lockdown-- no improvement in hatching.

We eat lots of eggs here.

Scrambled eggs with scallions or onions and creamed cheese.
Scrambled eggs with thyme, olives and feta
scrambled eggs topwed with shredded cheddar.

Yup, eggs for breakfast most days.

Sure hope CA gets water soon-- poor avocado crop expected for next year.