Black red s or brown reds and black copper marans are the same thing. They are just the red gene on the birchen pattern. Birchen is reserved for when the silver gene is with the birchen pattern. The melinising gene covers up what ever color is there and can create a black chicken wheather it its red brown or silver. Its harder to cover nales colors so two genes for it are needed to create the solid black. Its not uncommon for black copper narans to throw black colored chicks, to much melinizers and color is wiped out. Usually in fenales.* Balcks created in Marans from coppers should be culled and not counted as a black as black marans are suppose to be extended blacks not melinzed birchens. The same black out will occure with Penes from black crosses. The black pene is made from melinized birchens so is a differant type of black chicken from black marans, yet is similare genetically to the black copper. Black reds from black pene crosses will continue to revert to black as time goes by as they become pure for the melinizing gene, fewer black reds will hatch out and more and more numbers of solid blacks will dominate in the hatches. Technically if they are black reds they are just darkened brown reds.
Yellow leg color is caused by recessive genes one of which is in white legged birds. Better to have the white legged to correct than the blue. The wrong color just shows they have been out crossed to another breed like the Penedesenca or even Marans which have white shanks. But due to the compexity of shank color genetics the color dose not indicate what breed was out crossed to.
