Quote:
That is wierd that the yellow shanked ones do not have pea combs or beards, I have hatched one hen with yellow legs, beard and pea comb. Unfortunately, she lays a light brown egg. What is your goal as far as feather color? I am assuming the Leghorns were rose combed? So the F2s will have ether rose or cushion combs?
No, the barred leghorns (production blacks,) are single combed birds, but of the F1 birds I've seen, all combs look more like a sloppy walnut comb than anything else. Wrinkled, no spikes or points, varying sizes from very small to rather large. The small walnut combs accompanied small wattles, the larger walnut combs that tended towards single comb accompanied larger wattles.
With these birds, we're just going for a nice, sharp looking black barred bird that would be autosexing like a Dominique or Barred Rock. The males are significantly lighter in color than the females as adults. I didn't have any of the F1s as chicks, but I assume they were sex-linked. This F2 generation should be all barred, so it will be more challenging to sex, but we'll see!