leg color genetics?

[FVRM]

if i breed a white legged cock to a hen with yellow legs and the offspring have yellow legs how many backcrosses does it take to get yellow legs out of them? would a punnet square work?


y y
W yW yW
W yW yW

y W
y yy yW
W Wy Wy

 

[lyndon]

Man, this can be confusing.

Yellow roo over hen with Black Shank with White soles = ?
Yellow Roo over hen with Blue legs = ?

 

[lyndon]

My book contains 49 pages just on shank and foot color. Even a synopsis of the information would be difficult to explain on this forum.  If you can find a Backyard Poultry Magazine Volume 2, Number 6 Dec 2007/Jan 2008 issue- I wrote an article for that issue on leg color.


Tim

Tim,
What is the name of your book and where do I get it?

 

[Crisses]

if i breed a white legged cock to a hen with yellow legs and the offspring have yellow legs how many backcrosses does it take to get yellow legs out of them? would a punnet square work?


y y
W yW yW
W yW yW

y W
y yy yW
W Wy Wy

From what I understand I think the answer is no. There is no "yellow" gene. Yellow is an expression of 2 different genes. You're not breeding out yellow (y) because there is no y. The mother carries 2 different genes (I think they said blue and willow?) and it expresses yellow, and the white legged cock can have a variety of combinations and express as white legs. Several pages ago, someone mentioned the combo that expresses as yellow legs. Trace both genes to gene combinations that express white, breed your yellow-legged hen with a cock with the correct genes such that all the possible combos will come out white. Or such that 3/4 of them will come out white, if that's possible.

I'm puzzling over this information trying to figure out whether all my yellow legged chicks had a yellow-legged mom (I only have 1) or not....and if this is a sex-linked expression such that it would show that the yellow-legged babies would have to be males. Bird genetics is not my forte. It's far more complicated than we were taught in a high school biology class. I think I'll be lucky if I can tell my chicks apart, guessing their parentage (excepting that I only have 1 roo) is another story. I think I'll just cycle in the roo of the year from outside the flock and call it a lifetime.

 

[birdbrain79]

I have two families of chickens, one with white legs and one with yellow legs. When I breed my yellow leg cocks over my white leg hens I get white leg stags and yellow leg pullets 100% of time without exception.

 

[Folly's place]

I've got a question too about slate legs. I have an EE bantam cockrel who has slate legs, and is blue with copper hackles. Very handsome! The pullets who arrived with him from Cackle all have green (willow) legs, and some are blue, and some black, all with white necks and lacing, similar to the Iowa Blues. It's a very pretty group, and I'd like to have the slate (blue) legs come through if possible, with the gray/ blue feathering. Possible? Mary

 

[tao chick]

So in breeds that normally have slate legs, a green legged pullet implies she received two recessive yellow skin genes? Or did I misunderstand the info here?

 

[Folly's place]

They are EE bantams, so probably unknown genetics, except hopefully greenish eggs, when they start laying. Very cute, though, and I plan to see what happens.





The cockrel's tail is growing back after it got chewed. They are about ten weeks old in the photos. Mary

 

[Kev]

So in breeds that normally have slate legs, a green legged pullet implies she received two recessive yellow skin genes? Or did I misunderstand the info here?

That is exactly right. Not an implication, it is definite.

However as I unfortunately recently found out.. this can be an extremely sensitive issue to the breeder/owner, especially if they don't have a good handle on genetics. So bring that up(or not) with care lol....

 

[Kev]

They are EE bantams, so probably unknown genetics, except hopefully greenish eggs, when they start laying. Very cute, though, and I plan to see what happens.

Really like the colors on that boy!