ZamPen: The Line With Before-and-After Figures, Including One That Went Backwards
105Eggs
Station record. DOST-PCAARRD, August 2026.
43.6 gEgg weight
Station record. DOST-PCAARRD, August 2026.
81–83%Fertility
Station record. DOST-PCAARRD, August 2026.
not publishedMature weight, rooster
DOST-PCAARRD lists body weight among the traits its breed information system holds and publishes none of them for any chicken line. The morphometrics sit behind a sign-in.
not publishedMature weight, hen
DOST-PCAARRD lists body weight among the traits its breed information system holds and publishes none of them for any chicken line. The morphometrics sit behind a sign-in.
not publishedTo market
No Philippine source publishes days to a stated market weight for this line. DOST-PCAARRD.
Native typeFree-range standard
Named in PNS/BAFS 262:2018. Slaughter not earlier than 90 days.
The short answer
ZamPen lays 105 eggs per hen per year at 43.6 g, which is second on eggs and first on egg size among the four documented Philippine native lines. What sets it apart is that it is the only one whose breeding programme published a before and an after. Most columns improved. One did not, and the agency printed it anyway.
Source DOST-PCAARRD, Philippine Animal Breed Information System, native poultry (read on August 22, 2026)
What the breed system publishes
| Trait | ZamPen | Rank among the four lines |
|---|---|---|
| Eggs per hen per year | 105 | Second, behind Darag at 110 |
| Egg weight | 43.6 g | Heaviest |
| Fertility | 81–83% | Joint highest with Darag |
| Hatchability | 70–77% | Published for all four together |
| Age at first egg | 20–22 weeks | Published for all four together |
| Mature weight | not published | Not published for any line |
| Days to market weight | not published | Not published for any line |
Those come off the DOST-PCAARRD breed information system, read 22 August 2026. There is no timbang in that table, and ZamPen is not alone in that. The agency lists body weight among the traits it collects for every line and prints none of it.
The one column that moved against the keeper
The DOST-PCAARRD project report of 16 February 2023, run with J.H. Cerilles State College at Dumingag and the San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm, is the closest thing this country has to a published breeding result for a native chicken.
| Egg number | up 10.26%Post-project hens reported at 117 eggs annually, against the 105 the breed system publishes for the line. |
|---|---|
| Egg weight | up 5.31%From a line that was already the heaviest egg of the four at 43.6 g. |
| Fertility | up 3.20%A percentage change with no baseline flock size stated in the report. |
| Hatched eggs | up 14.21%The largest single movement in the set. |
| Age at first egg | 22.3 to 24 weeksLater, not earlier. The one column that moved against the keeper. |
Read that last row properly. Mas huli mangitlog ang inahin pagkatapos ng proyekto, by about twelve days. A programme selecting hard for egg number can pay for it in age at maturity, and there is nothing dishonest about the trade. It is simply not an improvement in every column, and it is rare to see that admitted in a project report.
117 is not 105, and neither figure is wrong
Two ZamPen egg numbers are in circulation from the same agency: 105 in the breed reference, 117 out of the project.
They describe different birds. 105 is the line as the breed system documents it. 117 is what selected post-project stock did under project management, on named campuses, with a breeding plan behind it. Kung ordinaryong ZamPen ang binili mo sa isang dispersal, the line figure is the one to plan on. Quoting 117 for a bird bought at a bakuran is the standard way a programme figure becomes a promise nobody made.
What the project actually produced
The same report counts the stock: 2,613 ZamPen birds in total, made up of 183 breeders, 121 growers, 2,027 hardened chicks and 282 still brooding, plus 2,431 more from partner communities.
Those numbers matter more than they look. ZamPen has the widest breeder network of the four lines, and availability is the trait with the best evidence attached on this whole subject. A line you can actually buy near you beats a better published egg figure four islands away, kasi ang manok na stressed sa biyahe ay hindi na iyong manok na binili mo.
What is still missing
No mature weight, no days to market, no feed intake and no feed conversion, for ZamPen and for every other Philippine native line. The best documented native line in the country still has nothing to say about meat.
So the honest reading is narrow. ZamPen is a good documented layer of small brown eggs with the widest breeder network in the country. Anything you are told about how heavy it gets, or how fast, did not come from a Philippine source.
Questions people actually ask
How many eggs does a ZamPen hen lay?
105 per hen per year on the DOST-PCAARRD breed information system, second only to Darag at 110. The same agency reported post-project hens laying 117 eggs annually after its 2023 breeding work, which is a project figure rather than the line figure.
What is the ZamPen egg weight? Show the answer
43.6 g, the heaviest of the four documented Philippine native lines. Darag is 41.36 g and Camarines and Boholano are both published at 40 g.
Did the DOST-PCAARRD breeding project improve ZamPen? Show the answer
In most columns. Egg number rose 10.26 per cent, egg weight 5.31 per cent, fertility 3.20 per cent and hatched eggs 14.21 per cent. Age at first egg moved the other way, from 22.3 weeks to 24 weeks, so the hens started laying later.
Where is ZamPen stock kept? Show the answer
The named institutional nucleus is the WMSU-CA Native Chicken Project at San Ramon, Zamboanga City. The 2023 project also ran with J.H. Cerilles State College at Dumingag and the San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm.