Do I want to learn about genetics? Yes. Is it very intimidating and scary? Yes.

[altballard]

For general health and genetic diversity, there will be no problems.

For making correctly-colored Blue Wheatens, yes it will be a bad idea (too much black or blue in the Wheaten pattern, probably worse than what you will get from starting with a Blue Copper.)

But depending on how much space and patience you have, you could use that hen too and keep track of which chicks are descended from which hens. It won't take many generations for you to know which chicks are turning out to be better for your purposes. You might find that chicks from one hen are better layers than from the other hen, or have darker eggs, or some other traits that you consider important. Some people decide that the "right" feather color is less important than some other traits. Other people want the feather color and the other traits, but focus on them in different orders (color first or other traits first or several things at a time but slower progress on each of them.)

How much space will depend on if my husband agrees to my doing 2 lines and a 2nd coop would be nice. I'm still waiting to find out if I have any additional boys in my batch of babies...im fairly sure I have the Marans nailed down as 1 girl (blue copper) & 1 boy (wheaten). My 2 Ameraucanas not yes sure and my 3 OEs I'm still hoping are girls.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Can a yellow legged rooster and white legged hen produce males with yellow legs?

 

[NatJ]

Can a yellow legged rooster and white legged hen produce males with yellow legs?

Short answer: sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Long answer:

If the white-legged hen is carrying the recessive gene for yellow legs, then she can produce both sons and daughters with yellow legs. Her chicks should be about a 50/50 split of white legs and yellow legs when their father has yellow legs.

If the white-legged hen is not carrying the recessive gene for yellow legs, then all of her chicks would have white legs, but they will all carry the gene for yellow legs (inherited from their yellow-legged father.)

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Short answer: sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Long answer:

If the white-legged hen is carrying the recessive gene for yellow legs, then she can produce both sons and daughters with yellow legs. Her chicks should be about a 50/50 split of white legs and yellow legs when their father has yellow legs.

If the white-legged hen is not carrying the recessive gene for yellow legs, then all of her chicks would have white legs, but they will all carry the gene for yellow legs (inherited from their yellow-legged father.)

Thank you. I wasn't sure if chickens carried recessive color leg genes or not. This means yellow legs are comparable to blonde hair in humans then