Pure white with grey legs

907mommy

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I'll post a photo tonight. I picked up an EE hen (11mo) and two white leghorn pullets (10weeks) well I'm looking at the "leghorns" at home and one of them is smaller, fluffier, has a small fluffy tail(not the long straight tail) and has grey legs. The guy I got them from hatches EE's could it be a white EE?
 
White Leghorns have large single combs and yellow legs, so you are right that this bird is not a WL.

While it is common for EE's to have pea combs, they are not a standardized breed but rather a hybrid mix, typically of Ameraucana or Araucana on one side and any other breed on the other. Therefore, not only can EE's look pretty much like anything, EE's can have any type of comb depending on whether or not the EE parent carried both sets of pea comb genes....which is unlikely unless it was from the breeding of 2 pea combed birds. Therefore, it likely only carries 1 pea comb gene, if that Ameraucana/Araucana blood is anywhere close in the background, which ensures a portion of its chicks will be single comb depending upon what the mother was...if White Leghorn, undoubtedly a portion will be single combed (25%? as pea comb is usually dominant over single).

I can't get your photos to open up into large size, but the leg color looks close to a greenish haze, so if the farm had EE's as stated, I think what you've got is an EE or EE mix, which means it could look like almost anything as it is a barnyard mix of hybrids...and all those genes scrambled and recollected amongst the chicks.

LofMc
 
It does look like a pea comb to me, its totally different than my leghorn's comb. I'm leaning toward EE but I think what really threw me was that she is all white. Personally I have never seen a white EE before, but I just started with chickens a year and a half ago. I've been looking at posts on BYC and I've seen some white EE but none as pure white as her. She has no color at all in her feathers. Im excited to see what she lays! Thank you for your help everyone!!!
 
It does look like a pea comb to me, its totally different than my leghorn's comb. I'm leaning toward EE but I think what really threw me was that she is all white. Personally I have never seen a white EE before, but I just started with chickens a year and a half ago. I've been looking at posts on BYC and I've seen some white EE but none as pure white as her. She has no color at all in her feathers. Im excited to see what she lays! Thank you for your help everyone!!!


EE's can have any coloring depending upon the parents genetic makeup. If it is as I suspicion a WL/EE cross, WL have dominant white which could cover any EE patterning.

If you are lucky, she is a she and may lay blue eggs for you if the EE parent carried a blue gene as WL is a white egg layer...blue on white will produce a variety of blue. The WL/EE cross are actually called Sapphires by one farm who sells them as blue egg layers (predominantly...again depending upon if the EE parent has 1 blue gene).

LofMc
 
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Awesome thank you! I'll post an egg photo when she starts laying in a few months. Just when I think I'm getting some of this chicken stuff figured out I have new things to learn. I appreciate the info, its always interesting to learn where these different chicken variations come from!!
 

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