The Pita Pinta Asturiana

[Ballerina Bird]

I thought so!

She looks just like Odile, in coloring and body shape. It's really nice to see their sister; thanks for posting. My ladies are now eating treats out of my hand and enjoying all the attention they get from my friends.

 

[Ballerina Bird]

The ladies enjoyed supervising the completion of their new run today, which a very, very kind and talented friend built.

Here they are helping.






Here is Odette investigating the auto door.



Here is the finished run, done in solid cedar to match the existing coop.



Here are some cute ones of the ladies, for good measure.



Odette is working on her tendu derrière away from the barre.







And here they are taking a siesta in their old run instead of going into the new one. Sigh. Chickens!

I feel confident they will venture forth soon, though. They have successfully negotiated the door a couple of times.


Edited to add:

 

[ronott1]

The ladies enjoyed supervising the completion of their new run today, which a very, very kind and talented friend built.

Here they are helping.






Here is Odette investigating the auto door.



Here is the finished run, done in solid cedar to match the existing coop.



Here are some cute ones of the ladies, for good measure.



Odette is working on her tendu derrière away from the barre.







And here they are taking a siesta in their old run instead of going into the new one. Sigh. Chickens!

I feel confident they will venture forth soon, though. They have successfully negotiated the door a couple of times.


Edited to add:

They are looking good!

The new run is amazing!

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Thank you! They are sweet, beautiful girls and deserve a nice place to play.

 

[dldolan]

All the mention of Pita Pintas in the Nor Cal thread brought me over here to see what this was about. Debi! Missed you at the Heirloom festival this Fall in Santa Rosa! I see you started the thread. I have been reading through... Are these friendly birds? I see you all love them, but I am used to my Splash Marans being friendly, pretty calm, and good layers, once they start. Seems like Pita Pintas might be a good compliment to my Splash--opposites on the black/white background! I have been wanting to try a new dual purpose breed, and now have enough coops for one more, besides by Splash Marans, my first love, and now Bantam Calico/MF Cochins, for the nieces and nephew and 'cause they are darling!

I think of Mediterranean birds as being flighty in general, so I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on them, as well as personality of the roosters. And what about as layers?
I see black background with white mottling. I "hear" y'all talking about too much white, so that is clearly not good
Yellow legs?
Egg color and ave. weekly, non-molting production?
Broodiness?

Thanks, everyone, for letting me quiz you!
Dawn in Healdsburg

 

[ronott1]

All the mention of Pita Pintas in the Nor Cal thread brought me over here to see what this was about. Debi! Missed you at the Heirloom festival this Fall in Santa Rosa! I see you started the thread. I have been reading through... Are these friendly birds? I see you all love them, but I am used to my Splash Marans being friendly, pretty calm, and good layers, once they start. Seems like Pita Pintas might be a good compliment to my Splash--opposites on the black/white background! I have been wanting to try a new dual purpose breed, and now have enough coops for one more, besides by Splash Marans, my first love, and now Bantam Calico/MF Cochins, for the nieces and nephew and 'cause they are darling!

I think of Mediterranean birds as being flighty in general, so I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on them, as well as personality of the roosters. And what about as layers?
I see black background with white mottling. I "hear" y'all talking about too much white, so that is clearly not good
Yellow legs?
Egg color and ave. weekly, non-molting production?
Broodiness?

Thanks, everyone, for letting me quiz you!
Dawn in Healdsburg

Hi Dawn!

Opposite of flighty.

Roosters are friendly.

Mine are good layers. They lay so much that their legs lose a lot of yellow. They slowed down for molt but kept laying and are still laying without light.

They have yellow legs with spots.

I have not seen broodiness.

One version looks like these for the amount of white. I think we may be confused by people showing pictures of them when they are young. They get darker as they get older and they get more white tips after the first molt. There is a percentage of white tips. twenty five percent?

They do seem to get along with other breeds. They do not attack the young pullets that they free range with in the afternoons.

 

[PetRock]

All the mention of Pita Pintas in the Nor Cal thread brought me over here to see what this was about. Debi! Missed you at the Heirloom festival this Fall in Santa Rosa! I see you started the thread. I have been reading through... Are these friendly birds? I see you all love them, but I am used to my Splash Marans being friendly, pretty calm, and good layers, once they start. Seems like Pita Pintas might be a good compliment to my Splash--opposites on the black/white background! I have been wanting to try a new dual purpose breed, and now have enough coops for one more, besides by Splash Marans, my first love, and now Bantam Calico/MF Cochins, for the nieces and nephew and 'cause they are darling!

I think of Mediterranean birds as being flighty in general, so I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on them, as well as personality of the roosters. And what about as layers?
I see black background with white mottling. I "hear" y'all talking about too much white, so that is clearly not good
Yellow legs?
Egg color and ave. weekly, non-molting production?
Broodiness?

Thanks, everyone, for letting me quiz you!
Dawn in Healdsburg

Hi, Dawn! I missed seeing you, too! This was the first year that we only went to the Expo for one day and chose Wed because a group of Monet's friends were going on that day. I am planning on going back to 2 days next year! I really missed seeing everyone and watching Walt judge.
I only have good things to say about my Pita Pintas!

I highly recommend them as a dual purpose breed. They are tied for first in my affections along with my Langshans. My husband is not a big chicken fan but they are his favorite breed. They are very friendly without being peck your leg annoying like some of my breeds are (Barred Rocks, Speckled Sussex, Welsummers). It is hard to photograph them because as soon as they see me with a camera, they have to come over to investigate. They are not big birds but none of mine have been flighty. They are fantastic layers and most of mine lay a medium brown egg. My first 7 hens laid through the winter the first year as pullets and slowed down but laid through the winter the second year. They are now over 2 yrs old and we'll see what happens this year after their molt! It is hard for me to keep track of how many eggs they lay per week because I have quite a few of them here in town and my breeding flock is on a friend's farm. Based on the eggs that I am getting from the pullets, I would guess the new layers are laying 5-6 eggs per week.

I love the cockerels/roosters. They are good flock protectors and easily handled but always respectful with no signs of aggression towards people. I hatched around 100 chicks last year and have been narrowing down my choices of which ones to keep for breeding next spring. The boys are in a bachelor pen at the farm and while there is a definite pecking order, they seem to do fine together. We have culled quite a few of the boys and they are excellent eating! They have been around 20-24 weeks when we have processed them and after packaging weigh 3.5-4.5 lb.

None of the hens in my first flock have gone broody but I did have 2 pullets decide to give it a try here in town. I only gave them a few eggs each since they were first timers. One girl hatched all 4 eggs but one chick died. She is a great mama bird and has integrated the chicks into the flock. The other pullet was a great sitter but when it was almost time for them to hatch, I moved her with her eggs into a more secure location. The move freaked her out and broke her of being broody. I gave the eggs to a black Pita Pinta/Cream Legbar mix pullet who had been broody for a little over a week. She hatched the eggs and is happily raising 3 little Pita Pinta chicks!

You see us talking about the amount of white because most of our mature birds are too dark with not enough white. So with our flocks, which all originated from Megans flock, more white is a good thing. I have been culling for body conformation and size first and color second.

 

[Ballerina Bird]

I will second PetRock's comment that they are hard to photograph because they are so inquisitive and social!

They always want to come over and see what you are doing. I am not raising mine to be meat birds, and I have pullets (from ronott1's flock) who are not yet laying, so I can't comment on those aspects. And they are my only two birds, so I don't see them interact with others. But they are lovely, calm, smart ladies.

 

[tommysgirl]

The ladies enjoyed supervising the completion of their new run today, which a very, very kind and talented friend built.

Here are some cute ones of the ladies, for good measure.



Odette is working on her tendu derrière away from the barre.







And here they are taking a siesta in their old run instead of going into the new one. Sigh. Chickens!

I feel confident they will venture forth soon, though. They have successfully negotiated the door a couple of times.

They are lovely!!! I really like your run and I have Odette too! She is Birchen Marans but she is all black. All of the other French names I tried out didn't fit but Odette is perfect! Also my Pita Pinta girl doesn't go into the coop by herself. Every night I have to lift her in and place her on the roost. Not sure she will every figure it out

didolan I don't know why it isn't letting me tag you but of my 30+ birds my PP is my favorite. I can not report on anything but temperament which is as described by Ron and Debi. Looking forward to getting/hatching more.

 

[Ballerina Bird]

They are lovely!!! I really like your run and I have Odette too! She is Birchen Marans but she is all black. All of the other French names I tried out didn't fit but Odette is perfect! Also my Pita Pinta girl doesn't go into the coop by herself. Every night I have to lift her in and place her on the roost. Not sure she will every figure it out

didolan I don't know why it isn't letting me tag you but of my 30+ birds my PP is my favorite. I can not report on anything but temperament which is as described by Ron and Debi. Looking forward to getting/hatching more.

Wow, another Odette! That is so great! Mine are Odette and Odile for the white swan and the black swan in Swan Lake (that's why I have the caption about Odette working on her ballet technique; I have a dance theme going on here -- the coop is called "Pavlova Perch"). They have such hilarious, endearing personalities; I'm sure it's just that Odette enjoys having you carry her up to her roost every night!