Hi Kathy
Yes, I read through it, what I dont think was considered is the climate/humidity of the places with successful leg feathering, the Ptarmigan live in a low humidity climate, and as pointed out the feathers are not hard ,
The Swedish Hedemora has soft feathering one coat is described as almost hair like, and their combs are very small which to me is a definite advantage.
there is a lot more involved then just feathering present or absent, type of feathering and the climate/humidity is a major factor. Of course if the chickens arnt free ranging then any kind of feather should help. With the isolation of the Icelandic I dont think there was a lot of opportunity for other genes to get a trial, I am curious why the feathered legs are present , if they wernt working, or just not enough of a hindrance to die out, or good enough to be a natural selection factor?
Its all a puzzlement to me. It will be very interesting to me to see how these work out.
Life is good, and better with Icelandics !