baby chick with feathers on it's legs.

[momofchicks]

My brother in law has chickens and we got a dozen eggs from him to hatch in a homemade incubator. We got 3 babies. Anyway, I saw his chickens with my own two eyes. I know the dad is a RIR and 3 hens are RIR's but one hen he said was a barred rock, she is only white, so I don't think she is a barred rock. I didn't look at her legs, well I just noticed that one of my babies that was born yesterday has feathers on it's legs. They all have the RIR beak and coloring but she is a little lighter with the feathers on legs. What could she be?

 

[warmfuzzies]

Post a picture. Feathering on the legs is a dominant trait, meaning that if i chick has that trait, one of the parents had to, too. It is not a hidden gene. That also means that ANY chick from that parent will show some feathering but sometimes its not much. I have a half cochin rooster that has just a few on his legs and none on his feet. Sometimes it shows up more on chicks and just comes in as berely noticable pinfeathers on the adults.

You probably have a chick that is a quarter feather-footed breed, or something like that. The main largefowl feather-footed chickens that are white, would be thewhite cochin and the light brahma. Check into them at feathersite.com and see if they look like your BIL's chicken.

Have fun! Designer babies are fun to figure out.