it's just another gentics thing, picking and selecting birds that exhibit the best type for it to start with.
of course great males help. look for spurs or heavy spur bumps on the hens, use them to get a start, eventually you will get a few. Thing is, usually after the first adult molt, it goes away, it's mainly a pullet feathering.In the end, you are left with a longer than normal tailed hen, usually with spurs.
I have heard from several breeders it may be caused by heavy testoserone levels in them. Due to this, I have had some over the years that either dont lay, lay very few, or lay those tiny little dime sized eggs. Most of them I have though lay just fine, and tend to make excellent males.
Hen feathered cocks, like in sebrights? That would have to come in from an outcross to a breed that had that set of genes, then back breed the chicks, some should come out then. Then to fix type you'd have to repeat the process to the breed of choice using the new 50% pure project birds. So on and so on. Never messed with hen feathering, kinda defeats the purpose in long tails, so I'm not sure how it would breed out, recessive or dominate. I feel confident it would be recessive, though not sure.
If it is a dominate trait, it would be a little easier though.
I actually bred one of my phoenix hens to a BB Red Hen Feathered Cock...
The Cockerel that was produced came out more so ginger with black speckles.... Almost like a sebright
It defeated the purpose of long feathered birds. His primary tail feathers were long, but he lacked saddles. So I culled him.
