Dark legs into Yellow?

[fancyfowl4ever]

How difficult is it to breed out Dark leg colour?
I want yellow legs, so breeding a yellow legged bird to a dark legged bird will probably get me dark legged offspring, right? Roughly how many generations would it take to get yellow legs again breeding the offspring back to yellow legged birds? I know no one can give me an exact answer, I would just like to know if it will take me 5 yrs or more like 15 yrs.

Thanks in advance!

 

[chrisf]

I'd like to know this too................

 

[DTchickens]

i;ve heard the Rooster plays a big part in determining the leg color... but not sure if its true. I would think mostly dark legs, (but lighter) maybe... some full yellows. about 3/4th to yellow leg would probably put it there, if not.. keep going. but shouldn't take more then about 3-4 years (Maybe 5)

 

[Kev]

Need more information- what do you mean by dark legs(is it black or slate or??) and also the color of the birds.

Leg color is also affected by some feather color genes. E(solid black) and I think ER(birchen) put the black pigment over the legs.

My guess is.. if it's a black chicken that requires yellow legs, then um.. good question. I am not sure how to get clean yellow legs on a black chicken unless it is maybe on eb(partridge/dark brown) base with extra genes to turn them solid black..

Leg color is also affected by some genes, such as barring.. this puts bars across the feathers but it also represses skin pigmentation. That is why Barred Rocks roosters tend to have clean yellow legs while the hens are spottier or have the stripe.. Take away the barring gene, these BR will turn out solid black chickens with black legs with yellow soles.

So you see just stating the leg color is still too broad question..

 

[Henboy]

why is this so complicated to you guys?Breed your dark legged chicken with a yellow legged chicken.Some offspring will come out with yellow legs, some will come out with dark legs.Breed the yellow offspring to another yellow chicken and youll get even more yellow legs...not rocket science.

...shouldnt take more than 3 yrs.

 

[DTchickens]

Quote:
dark leg genes are very VERY hard to breed out, i've tried. if its a dark fowl (black, brownred etc) Probably will never happen, but if its a blue. or something like that with slate. probably about 3-4 generations, could be more or less. depends on your line really. you'll just have to try it

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
It's hardly that easy. As a previous poster pointed out leg colour is linked to other genetic factors
To the OP-your question might be easier to answer if you could define more clodely what you're asking.
ie:are you talking about cleaning up the dark colour that tend to creep into Black or Partridge Wyandottes or Rocks. Or, on the other hand are you actually trying to turn black legs yellow?

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

I have a black Leghorn roo that is too small for my thinking(at least compared to my european leghorns), and I wanted to cross him with a Minorca or even a Black Andalusian(or maybe even a blue and work on blue leghorns) to increase size. Now all of those breeds have dark legs(black on the minorka and slate on the andalusian).
I think the skin colour of both breeds is white, right?
My Standard doesn't state skin colour.

 

[NYREDS]

Leghorns have yellow skin. Minorcas & Andalusians have white skin. For future reference skin colour in the standard is located with the breeds economic qualities.
Having not tried to do what you want to do I can only make an assumption which is you'd be a long time getting back to a pure yellow leg. Urch/Turnland Hatchery in Minnesota has Black Leghorns that have good size & great leg colour. That might be a better way to go.

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

I have a german breed standard, and they don't list the skin colours.....(they list shank colour only)

Do you know if that hatchery ships chicks to canada? And where can I find their info?