Leg feather mix questions

[TinyRaptorDodos]

So I had a light Brahma roo- I hatched a bunch of chicks from him. How come his chicks always only got a few leg feathers? The hens were not feather legged.
But then Cochin mixes would have very feathered legs.

What causes that? It’s hard to see on this chick but I can’t catch her. She’s a austrawhite x light Brahma but only has three or four leg feathers per leg

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Brahmas don’t usually have as many feathers on their legs as cochins do.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

Brahmas don’t usually have as many feathers on their legs as cochins do.

I haven’t noticed the difference but I’ve never had fully grown cochins- I do have a Brahma hen who has insanely feathered legs I always saw them the same! Just goes to show how much I miss in chickens details thank you

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Genetics are complex with many things at play.. This quote taken from the link that follows it..

"Feathered legs:​

Pti-1, Pti-2, Pti-1B, Pti-1L - Dominant. Two different feathered leg loci with perhaps four alleles for the Pti-1 locus (Pti-1, Pti-1B, Pti-1L and pti-1+ : one should always assume the wild-type allele although not always mentioned).
Research has shown that the Pti-1 and Pti-2 genes are most likely not allelic (they belong to different loci of the chromosome). When both Pti-1 and Pti-2 alleles are present, heavy feathering as in Cochin, Sultan, Belgian d�Uccle results. If only one is present, the feathering is weaker as in Langshan, Faverolle, Breda. These genes demonstrate a dose effect. Regarding the Pti-1B and Pti-1L genes, the following is from Somes' 1992 paper in Poultry Science: "The Langshan and Brahma breeds were both shown to possess the same single shank-feathering locus, but because of their differences in phenotype and penetrants in the genetic crosses it was suggested that they possessed different alleles at this locus. This locus was designated as Pti-1, with Pti-1L being the Langshan allele and Pti-1B the Brahma allele. The Brahma allele was shown to be dominant over the Langshan allele. Both the Sultan and Cochin breeds were shown to possess two shank-feathering loci, and the data suggested that one of the loci in the Sultan contained the Pti-1L allele. It is hypothesised that the comparable allele in the Cochin breed was Pti-1B. It is proposed that the second locus in both of these breeds is similar, and the symbol Pti-2 is suggested."

https://cluckin.net/chicken-genetics-gene-table-and-breeding.html

While I consider it a good fun read and place to start.. Please use other resources as well as your own judgement to verify accuracy on anything of true importance.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

Genetics are complex with many things at play.. This quote taken from the link that follows it..

"Feathered legs:​

Pti-1, Pti-2, Pti-1B, Pti-1L - Dominant. Two different feathered leg loci with perhaps four alleles for the Pti-1 locus (Pti-1, Pti-1B, Pti-1L and pti-1+ : one should always assume the wild-type allele although not always mentioned).
Research has shown that the Pti-1 and Pti-2 genes are most likely not allelic (they belong to different loci of the chromosome). When both Pti-1 and Pti-2 alleles are present, heavy feathering as in Cochin, Sultan, Belgian d�Uccle results. If only one is present, the feathering is weaker as in Langshan, Faverolle, Breda. These genes demonstrate a dose effect. Regarding the Pti-1B and Pti-1L genes, the following is from Somes' 1992 paper in Poultry Science: "The Langshan and Brahma breeds were both shown to possess the same single shank-feathering locus, but because of their differences in phenotype and penetrants in the genetic crosses it was suggested that they possessed different alleles at this locus. This locus was designated as Pti-1, with Pti-1L being the Langshan allele and Pti-1B the Brahma allele. The Brahma allele was shown to be dominant over the Langshan allele. Both the Sultan and Cochin breeds were shown to possess two shank-feathering loci, and the data suggested that one of the loci in the Sultan contained the Pti-1L allele. It is hypothesised that the comparable allele in the Cochin breed was Pti-1B. It is proposed that the second locus in both of these breeds is similar, and the symbol Pti-2 is suggested."

https://cluckin.net/chicken-genetics-gene-table-and-breeding.html

While I consider it a good fun read and place to start.. Please use other resources as well as your own judgement to verify accuracy on anything of true importance.

Thank you! I never knew genetics could get this complex… can’t believe I used to think “it’s just a chicken” with no specific breed to it for so long-

 

[phasianidae]

Leg feathering is complex and not well understood. The Pti stuff is grossly over simplified. The hens that the Brahma rooster was bred to will each have their own set of leg feathering genetics, even if they don't have leg feathering themselves. Sometimes you'll have clean legged chickens that you could breed a very heavily leg feathered bird to and still get clean legs. On the other hand, you might cross a feather legged bird to a clean legged bird and get heavier leg feathering than the feather legged parent. If you wanted to you could start with chickens with just a single feather on one leg and work your way to heavy leg feathering.