By the thread title, you can probably guess this question is from a novice Sussex keeper. Excuse my ignorance.....
Background: We got our first coronations in November 2016 from a lady working on a lavender project. Not sure what exactly.... Two pullets and a cockerel. We rely solely on broody hens for breeding, so, no mass egg hatching projects are going on here. (I.e., not a huge number of offspring.)
Our roo has his faults, but he is an enormous and well formed bird, 4.5 to 4.8 kg. His legs are not pure white, kind of buff - but without a really (pure) white leg to compare with, one would call them creamy white. He also has some vague whispy feathering on his shanks. One of the girls has pure white legs, no trace of feathers. The other girl has the same colour buff legs as the roo, also no trace of shank feathers.
I know yellow leg gene is recessive. There have been 5 young.
2 of these have bright yellow legs. The boy has slightly feathered shanks, just little short whisps... I figured roo is carrying 1 gene for yellow legs.
2 other offspring have pure white legs. Again, the boy has whispy feathers on the shanks.
I am not sure what's happening with the 5th. Yellow legs and no feathers, so far, but less than 2 weeks old, though wing feathers are coming along and I am leaning towards this being a girl.
So, my questions are: could the hen with the "not quite white" legs be carrying a yellow leg gene which is breaking through in expression? I guess there could be other leg colours? If this is the case, could I assume the girl with the pure white legs is homozygous for white leg gene? Or at least not carrying yellow leg gene?
And the last question, the most burning question....... Could the remnant
feathering on the shanks be an easy way for me to get an early gender detection in this group?
Thanks for reading. Look forward to seeing what people think...
