I've actually experienced an interesting genetic anomaly myself, mine involves toes. Years ago, I was given a hen missing her middle toenails. Skip ahead to last winter, I decided to hatch a dozen of my eggs, since I had just gotten rid of my rooster. Only one chick hatched, turned out he was a rooster missing his middle toenails. I had no doubt who that chick came from. He turned out to be a model citizen rooster, so I've kept him around, he only crows once in the morning that I am aware of and my neighbors have not complained. Well I recently discovered a nest full of eggs in the yard, I had no idea who laid them all since they were all different. I suspected some of them because all of my hens have unique eggs. Anyway, I put them in the bator and they just hatched, the last chick to hatch actually has shorter middle toes. So I suspect that this chick inherited to no toenail genes and it manifested as short toes. But I also know that this must be a recessive gene because all of the other chicks have middle toenails.
