Silkie leg feathering?

[CandySilkieGirl]

Okay, so my partridge silkie Ziggy never developed leg feathers, she is over a year old and From what research I did people have stated "They are not purebred silkies if they have no leg feathering" I ordered her and 5 other SILKIES from a hatchery and she is the only one who never got leg feathering. I recently purchased 2 buff silkie chicks. They are around 2 months old now and i noticed Lil' bit also has no leg feathers! I realize they will never be show quality, but i saw the mother and father of the buff's and no doubt she is a purebred. Is this a deformity? What causes lack of leg feathers? Does anyone else have silkies like this? He
here are the comparisons between them and their "siblings" I know dusty has a crooked toe, I guess he was born that way!
Sorry if the images are upside down.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

If htey have silkie feathering, they are pure silkie. Birds from a hatchery are almost always lacking in breed traits. In fancy breeds like silkies, the traits that are lacking tend to be obvious: wrong comb, lack of foot feathering, lack of crest, etc. In breeds like plymouth rocks, it is more a case of the details of the traits that tend to be lacking rather than the trait itself (poor barring, poor skin colour, etc.) For all breeds type is often lacking.

 

[Lobodugald]

Hi there.
I got some Silkies from a hatchery and the one also has NO leg feathers.
I saw the parents and the other babies are all stunning, even she is stunning except for her legs.
I believe that the gene for NO leg feathers is recessive so this obviously means that BOTH parents are carrying it but my question is WHY?
Why would someone breed this gene INTO their Silkies?
Does this mean that somewhere down the line this hatchery started breeding their Silkies using crossbreeds (crossed with another breed that has NO leg feathers)?
It just seems so hard to believe when I look at them because they look soooo purebred. How is it that a recessive gene passed through so many generations without being bred out and then it just happened that BOTH parents were carrying it?
Or is there something else at play here that effects leg feather genes?
Why I ask that is because this bird also cries all day for no reason but if you try pick it up and give it attention it screams and goes mental. It is completely wild no matter how much attention I give it and no other Silkie on my property is wild.

 

[BleuSaphir]

I don’t know...but I would prefer a clean leg Silkie!

 

[Chicalina]

It is just poor quality hatchery stock, where they never breed out the wrong features, because profit.

If you want good quality birds you need to buy them from a decent backyard breeder who cares about the SOP, who is a member of the breed club and even then they will keep the best birds for their breeding programme (though they'll still be better than hatchery ones). Most will also sell hatching eggs.

 

[Lobodugald]

I don’t know...but I would prefer a clean leg Silkie!

It looks so strange but it is more practical I guess ha ha.

 

[Lobodugald]

It is just poor quality hatchery stock, where they never breed out the wrong features, because profit.

If you want good quality birds you need to buy them from a decent backyard breeder who cares about the SOP, who is a member of the breed club and even then they will keep the best birds for their breeding programme (though they'll still be better than hatchery ones). Most will also sell hatching eggs.

I know that you are correct. We have been trying to find Silkies for over ten years and that is why we bought in these because the transport was so cheap, it was a once in a lifetime chance to get Silkies into our area.
If we bought from the proper breeders the transport costs would have been almost a whole years salary because Silkie breeders are so far away from us.
We will just have to work with what we got, most are stunning and only two of them had one visible breed fault each so i'm actually pretty happy since they did come from a hatchery ha ha..