Hello Manoz and the other trap nesters. I really appreciate all the work you've done.
I've lurked on here occasionally because I was looking for ideas on boxes.
Hopefully I'll get some built this week. I have 4 flocks of adult birds but am currently only breeding pure Black Penedesencas, which are 2 of my flocks. With the fact that they are so rare and I can't seem to get any more I decided to just use my own birds to perfect a line. Supposedly all US Blacks came from 12 eggs that hatched from a single importation of 80. So all here could be somewhat related.
To that end I'm building a new incubator AND trap nests. So I'm almost on board with you.
I have a few issues.
I use numbered leg bands. There isn't a SOP for penes in the US. I translated the Catalonian, Irish and Argentinian standards for the Penedesenca Group and will be using those. Penedesencas and Empordanesas are known as the only chicken with white ear lobes to lay a brown egg and a very dark one at that. Blacks are the only dual purpose penedesenca so besides pasturing as much as possible, my priorities are:
Select for vigor first
The standard I translated
Maintain an acceptable carcass weight
Work on a darker egg
Maintain my egg size(currently averaging 62 grams)
Select for good egg production
I know trap nesting is the only way I can accomplish this.
I was lucky to find some chicks just a year ago, started with 23 and they're fabulous birds. After losing a few to possums, coons and eggbinding and culling all the boys that weren't acceptable (feather/earlobe color) my breeding started with 7 pullets 2 primary roosters and 2 spare roos.
One problem is that my original birds were apparently sired by 2 somewhat unrelated roos but I had no idea which birds were which so no idea who was full bro/sis and who wasn't. Hopefully only a couple or none. Not being able to find any more birds I'm forced to ignore that fact for now.
I've raised 4 batches of chicks and some of those are starting to lay now. I've since culled the father of the first 3 batches so the pullets will be bred to the new primary roo and rotate the 2 best cockerels with the hens.(mothers/sons) So I'm done hatching until I can verify both parents of eggs I set.
The Pene girls are extremely skittish and flighty. Actually they're wild and scared to death of people.
I think I'll have to make my boxes with an escape hatch operable from outside and close the coop door long enough to read the leg band so I don't freak them out interrupting laying.
I'm also going to let them get used to using the boxes a few days before I trap. Right now the hens all use the same nest.
Any advice the contributors to this thread have would be appreciated and I'll chime in from time to time also.
