question about the dominant feather leg gene?

[alibra]

All of my hens are clean legged, & so is my rooster. A hen just went broody on a mix of eggs, & hatched six chicks. At least two of the chicks have feathered legs, but neither of their parents do. From my understanding, since the gene is dominant, the carrier of the gene would have to be feather legged? Can a chicken be a carrier of this gene if they don't show it? And would both parents have to carry this gene for the offspring to have feathered legs?

 

[Kelsie2290]

From what I understand, there are suppressor genes that can keep the leg feathering from showing up even if the birds have the feather legged gene. (incomplete dominant) There are at least two different dominant feathered leg genes. When a bird has both they have heavy feathering like Cochins, if they have one the feathering is less like in Langshans. The genes demonstrate a dose effect, the more they have the heavier the leg feathering. They have found one recessive leg feather gene, but it seems to be pretty rare. So my guess would be one or more of your parent birds has one or more feather legged genes, but also has a suppressor gene that is keeping the feathering from showing up, but in the chicks, some of them have the feather legged gene and do not have the suppressor, so they show the feathers.