Welsummer with tiny feathers on legs/toes... what is going on???

[SeaChick]

(Not sure what category this should go in, sorry!)

So our pretty Welsummer pullet is 11 weeks old. She (and her sister, who went to a friend's house) came from Meyer Hatchery, so they're not purebred Welsummers, but we ordered Welsummers so it's not like they're mix-breed farmyard birds....

We noticed that they both have a couple of small feathers coming in on the sides of their legs (not up by the "bloomers".... I'm talking about right in the middle of the yellow scales!) And Ophelia even has a little tuft between two of her toes, on the webbing there.

Is this really weird?? Does it mean they have some Cochin or something in their bloodline someplace?

Stacey

 

[speckledhen]

They do have Cochin in their ancestry, I've read, like the Wyandotte. I think it's like a Wyandotte that pops up with a single comb and on occasion, feather stubs on their legs. Here is a blurb from www.poultrypages.com

The breed was created at the same time as Barnevelders but on the Ysel river area around Deventer in Holland. They are reputed to be made from breeds including partridge versions of Cochin, Leghorn and Wyandotte with later additions of Barnevelder and Rhode Island. Imported initially in 1928 and classed here as the heavier light breed.An excellent back garden egg layer normally good with children.​

 

[SeaChick]

Thanks!! That's very interesting. Do you think that whoever bred them is "making" them again from those breeds, more recently, or is it more likely that the gene just pops up once in a while even if it's been decades since they were crossed? (Shows my ignorance about chicken breeding, sorry!)

 

[speckledhen]

I have a couple of those too. Apparently, it is very common in Welsummers, not unusual at all. Recessive genes pop up out of the blue like that. I even had an Ameraucana from good stock hatch with some tiny feather stubs once.

 

[wegotchickens]

Funny that this should pop up now!
One of my Welsummer chicks hatched from MotherGoose's eggs has a few feathers on it's legs. When it was little I wasn't for sure I was really seeing feathers but last night I looked closely and am certain this one has feathered legs. I was about to post a 'is this possible' question and saw this thread.

They aren't feather like a silkie. Just a thin line down the outside of each leg. And only one of the 6 has this.