How Prevalent Are Feathered Legs?

[preppy*hippie*chick]

If I were to breed a clean legged bird to say, a Cochin - then breed the resulting offspring back to clean legged birds - how likely would feathered legs be to show up in the F2 & F3 generations? In theory, Cochins would only be introduced once.

Thanks to anyone who responds!

 

[Kev]

There are three leg feathering genes. Two dominant, one recessive.

It also depends on whether the cochin is pure for all these or not. Typically a cross will have leg feathers, mostly on the legs and maybe a little bit on the outer toe. There can be surprises though, such as some looking nearly clean legged and some rather heavily feathered.

If you're hoping for clean legs after the cross.. it can be somewhat a project- the more genes you want to get rid of, the more chicks you will need to hatch. However you can possibly hit on one or two clean legs in the second and get better luck with that in the third generation.. but don't be too surprised if it seems mild leg feathering or stubs show up in some birds in later generations.

 

[preppy*hippie*chick]

Thank you Kev - that's exactly what I wanted to know.

 

[NYREDS]

You will likely see some leg feathering for MANY generations. Take Wyandottes for example: somewhere way back in the development of Wyandottes Cochons were used. To this day Wyandottes are one of the breeds most likely to have stubs [small feathers on legs & toes-a disqualification]. That's after hundreds of generatons.

 

[big medicine]

prep hip chick
As Kev says there can be surprises. I am working on a side project, blue laced red/gold pattern in a Brahma. The male I used is a F1 offspring of a splash BLRW crossed to my gold laced "brahmas". This male is not the heaviest foot feathered, but completely down the leg and outer toe, the hens much better. I have maybe 80 chicks out of this breeding. I was suprised by the number of chicks that are clean legged, or lightly stubbed. The shame of it is that some of these feather impaired chicks look like they are going to be gorgeous ,and some real bruisers. I don't know if the Cornish blood in the gold laced backround is a factor here.
If you know of anyone looking to beef up their BLR or gold laced wyandotte lines these may be of some use.

This years breeding pen.

 

[McSpin]

I like your cross. Beautiful birds!
Quote:

 

[Kev]

Big Medicine, I would have loved to take home one or 2 of your clean legged ones. Last year I purchased 2 dozen Naked Neck eggs, however two chicks turned out to be obviously Wyandotte cross/mixes. The rooster appears to have a standard silver e+ phenotype and the hen appears to be BLR cross/mix. Neither show any lacing but these two have me thinking about creating laced Naked Necks out of them. Your birds would have been a great boost if I went that route.. (it needs to be repeated your project birds are extremely nice looking)

That seems to be an universal rule- the traits you want the most seem to strongly segregate into two neatly divided groups. I battle this with my silkies and showgirls. They seem to always come out with either good crests and poor leg feathering or lousy crests and nice leg feathering.. Very frustrating.

 

[big medicine]

hip prep chick,
You have me curious about your question. If I may be so bold , may I ask what trait are you hoping to pull from the Cochin gene pool. I see on your BYC page you have BLRW, is this the clean legged part of this equation ?