Wild Chickens: Feathered legs and toes - an advantage or disadvantage?

[centrarchid]

Quote:
I think the feathers or down do provide insulation. The feathers may also provide some aid with walking on powdery snow. The genetic options existing in leg featherss of chickens I have seen do not appear anything like those of ptarmigans.

 

[pocopoyo]

Why not include some of each (featherleg and non featherleg) in the founder stock. Let them self select for feathered or non-feathered legs.
If the intention is for them to be wild, let nature decide.

pocopoyo

 

[Ariel301]

I can see the feather footed birds having the same problems in snow that I have seen on horses with "feathering" on their feet. The snow will form hard frozen balls stuck in the feathers/hair that the animal has to drag around. I used to have a horse with hairy feet and in winter I had to shave it down and coat her feet in vaseline or she'd pick up a couple of pounds of snow stuck on each foot, which was probably very uncomfortable.

 

[phasianidae]

I apologize for the late response, thank you all for your opinions.

I agree with Centrarchid with that the feathers/down do provide insulation. I can't imagine why they wouldn't.

Here is a picture of the foot of a Pavloski chicken, its the closest I've seen to ptarmigan-type foot feathering. Unfortunately, the feathers appear shredded and perhaps not in their natural state.

Definitely not ptarmigan-like, but they do completely surround the foot on the rooster in this link: http://web.archive.org/web/20030105043235/http://www.capital.net/~intranet/Chickens/Chicken%20Pictures/2001%20Chickens/Breeders/Pieds%20de%20Plume/Pieds%20de%20Plume.htm

Pocopoyo,

Thats what i'm planning on, there can't be a better way of finding out. But I would like to get the right feathering alleles first, I don't think typical Cochin-type leg feathering would be of any benefit.

Ryan