My chicks are not old enough to note how much feathering they have, but I suspect the feathering will be far less than is supposed to be there.I don't know how the genetics work. I did have two black Brahma hens, two blue Brahma hens, and one blue splash Brahma roo, all with feathering on legs and feet, all in one breeding pen. I hatched about 30 or so chicks with about 6 of them clean legged and footed and another 6 or so with scant feathering on their legs and feet. Here's an example. These came from that breeding pen, which has since been disbanded.
As for the genetics - this is the super simple version: If you have project brahma - ie: mixed and bred back to make a color, such as blue, where the back crosses are only a couple of generations - you may have birds that carry one feather leg gene and one clean leg gene. These birds will have feather legs. When you breed them, if a chick inherits the clean leg gene from both parents then it will be clean legged. I think the genetics of this are more complex, since it seems you can get incomplete genetics and get lightly feathered legs, or there may be a separate gene for feather feet that may make a difference, or just the strength of the genetics in general.
Anyone else want to weigh in on this?
