Quote:
Leg contest!?  Hah!  I always judge that first on chickens!  ;-)  It is where MOST of the DOMINANT faults are:  (Example: Feather Stubs, Wrong Color, Sturdyness)  If you dont have good legs to support a dual purpose bird, it is no longer dual purpose.  I notice a difference in legs with hatchery birds compared to Breeder birds as well.  Even my hens have stocky legs!
No.  Its from breeding.  

  That is a hard thing to correct, if they are not corn yellow - I need to get some pics of my birds again, and post them.  Yellow is RECESSIVE, so once you breed it in, it will be harder to breed back out.  So in the first place, why add it when it will cost more and more time to fix?  It is easier to cull out than to breed out!
IMO the main focus is to BETTER THE BREED, NOT TO MASS PRODUCE IT.  I have many breeds that I *want*, but if people add too many breeds, I personally do not think they cull as hard, as they cannot raise 100+ of a breed to select new breeding stock.  This year out of 100 birds, I was able to cull down to 4 roosters, and 12 hens!  Some of the others could have made the cut, but breeding the best of the best gives you more chances of producing the best!  This is easier for me to do, as I sell my welsummer rooster culls to the Hmong community up here, and most of them pre-book for them in the fall, so I already have 90% of my excess culls sold for the year in the fall.
Nate