White Leghorn has white/pinkish legs and a white beak

[Hoodiyep]

Today I picked up a 4 month old white leghorn rooster from a guy. He said he got it from Murray McMurray Hatchery. It looks just like a white leghorn except for the legs and beak. They are white and not yellow. Does anyone know what the deal with this leghorn is? Good looking bird, except for the legs and beak being off color. Thanks!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Some of the what they call Pearl White Leghorns I have gotten from them have have had legs that are really pink/whitish colored instead of yellow ... might be just the strain they have ... since they are breeding for egg production and not to a standard? .... they do also have White Orpingtons though, could it be one of those that got mislabeled?

 

[Hoodiyep]

Thanks! This one is definitely not an orp. Very leghorn looking except the leg and beak color. I wonder if I breed him with two of my Ideal Poultry leghorn hens if the offspring will have yellow legs.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Interesting, from what i can tell from the shank genetic charts white is dominant to yellow, if he is homozygous for white all the chicks would be white but split white/yellow, but if he is split you'd get half and half ... either way you can select for it easily since it is recessive. No idea how the dominant white feather color would affect shank color in this case, the Pearl White Leghorns are definitely dominant white ime.
http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/mutations2.html and http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page3.html