ISA Brown with one blue leg

[baileypaiger]

Hello fellow poultry people! I have a very strange pullet that I acquired at a few days old from a tractor supply. When I first brought her home she had two yellow legs and recently her leg started to turn blue. She is walking fine and the leg appears healthy. I have scoured the internet and a few books but have found nothing. She was labeled as an ISA brown which I believe to be true. I’m just dumbfounded. The tint is only on her one leg.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I have a starlight green layer with legs just like that. I find it fascinating.
I noticed it when mine was about 6 weeks old. She is over a year now.

 

[nicalandia]

Good point

gynandromorph chicken(Actual name for Chimeras)

The right side of this bird is a ZW Female, it carries sex linked inhibitor in its hemizygous form(just one copy)

The left side of this bird is a ZZ Male, it carries sex linked inhibitor on its homozygous form(two identical copies)

If this bird's sire had slate shanks the right side shank should have been slate/willow because it would have inherited its sire id+ wild type mutation and yellow shank on the left because its dame would have carry Id sex linked dermal inhibitor and the left side would have been Id/id+, but.. neither parents of ISA Brown or Hybrid Red Sex links lack wildtype recessive sex linked id+

 

[BunnyEberhart]

It is so strange... definitely keep an eye on it. Tractor supply doesn't seem to sell pure breeds. We got 2 "Americana" chickens. From the Pullet bin. I have 2 easter eggers. The Roo has bright yellow legs and the pullet lays green eggs. So not pure. My guess is, if the leg color is not from injury, illness, or accidental dye someplace, this girl has something mixed in somewhere in the family tree that decided to show up now. It may get darker as she gets older. But that is just a guess.

 

[preciouschick]

Hello fellow poultry people! I have a very strange pullet that I acquired at a few days old from a tractor supply. When I first brought her home she had two yellow legs and recently her leg started to turn blue. She is walking fine and the leg appears healthy. I have scoured the internet and a few books but have found nothing. She was labeled as an ISA brown which I believe to be true. I’m just dumbfounded. The tint is only on her one leg.
View attachment 2349829View attachment 2349830

Found this on the internet. The picture is from the writers web page.
Hen coloring and leg color - Janicki Buttercups
Also note the leg color difference between the two birds: Buttercups are required to have willow green legs, and the hen to the right clearly has slaty blue legs. Why is this acceptable? Well let us first examine what causes leg color in chickens.

There are several different leg colors in the chicken world, including white, yellow, blue, and green. The willow green of the Buttercup leg color is caused by a very dark under color, with an overlay of yellow skin. A slaty blue leg is caused by a bird with the same under color, but white skin, such as a Polish.

Like all Mediterranean breeds, Buttercups are bred primarily for egg production, and are required to have yellow skin. Their yellow skin provides them with yellow pigment to supply to their egg yolks during egg production. While they are laying, hens begin to go through a bleaching process as all the yellow pigment in their skin is used up. Eventually, all their skin bleaches to white, and the dark under color of their legs shines through as slaty blue.

The hen on the right has been laying for several months now, and the yellow skin on her legs has bleached to white, causing her legs to turn from green to blue. The pullet in the center has just started laying, and still has plenty of yellow pigment in her skin.

 

[RainbowHen]

She could be a chimera.

 

[Gray Farms]

Genetic fluke I'd say. I've seen a few cases like this "not personally in my birds though". It doesn't seem to be passed onto further generations.

 

[BunnyEberhart]

I have a starlight green layer with legs just like that. I find it fascinating.
I noticed it when mine was about 6 weeks old. She is over a year now.

Oh! Could you post a photo? I would love to see her legs! Please if you are ok with it that is.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Oh! Could you post a photo? I would love to see her legs! Please if you are ok with it that is.

She is pretty skittish. I will see if I can get a hand holding her for a picture today.
I figure with the starlight green layer being a mixed breed my birds weirdness is due to genetics.

 

[nicalandia]

She could be a chimera.

If she is a true ISA Brown then even if she is a genetic Chimera both of her shanks would have been Yellow as neither of her parents have slate shanks