Black Tail Japanese Bantam question

[Eric R]

I just bought a Black Tail Japanese Bantam rooster. I know he's fairly young and his comb and wattles just came in but I know they'll get even bigger over time. My question is, I see pictures of these cool roosters with really short legs wattling around but mine seems to have longer legs but wasn't sure if that's just how they look when they're younger and slimmer and will look stockier over time. Or did I just get a longer legged one?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You might have gotten a longer legged one. If I remember right, the short legs come with a gene that can cause fatality if they get 2 copies, so a lot of people breed a short legged to a long legged to avoid moat of those fatalities

 

[The Moonshiner]

Yours is long legged. He'll stay like that.
The creeper gene is responsible for the short legs. Its a lethal gene so when it's homozygous the chicks will always die before hatch.
Therefor all short legged japanese carry a non creeper gene so there will always be some long legged ones produced from breeding.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Yours is long legged. He'll stay like that.
The creeper gene is responsible for the short legs. Its a lethal gene so when it's homozygous the chicks will always die before hatch.
Therefor all short legged japanese carry a non creeper gene so there will always be some long legged ones produced from breeding.

Yes, that's it. Thanks. Couldn't think of what the gene was actually called

 

[Eric R]

Yeah I heard they can have issues moving around in the egg to position themselves properly for zipping. I didn't know about the long vs short legs. Thanks for the info.

 

[Eric R]

Hilarious! When you said creeper I immediately pictured a creeper that you use to get under a car and thought, yup. Makes perfect sense.