White legs in a Buckeye

[LaurenRitz]

According to the information I have found, Buckeyes should have yellow feet, but mine are white.

It doesn't matter much to me, but both Cackle Hatchery and Hoovers show birds with distinctly white feet in their pictures of the Buckeye.

This came to my attention because one of my crosses (JG/RIR/Marans) has distincly white feet, and I wonder how much mixing is being done in these breeds.

I am also curious as to which breeds might have gotten mixed in to produce white legged Buckeyes.

 

[DemeterAD9]

Are we talking about the bird in the photo? I don't think that is a buckeye. Along with the wrong feet color, they should also have pea combs and be mostly red with some black tail feathers.

 

[LaurenRitz]

No, that's the mixed breed rooster. I couldn't find a good picture of the Buckeye. I'll have to take one tomorrow.

 

[LaurenRitz]

Original post updated with pictures.

 

[DemeterAD9]

I don’t know much about leg/foot color genetics so I can’t say much in that aspect. I would imagine hatchery genetics are pretty specific to each individual hatchery assuming they don’t bring in new blood very often. I think it is safe to assume most hatchery birds will be close to what they are supposed to look like but may be lacking in some areas. I bought 2 SLW that came from Hoovers. One had a single comb while the other had a rose comb, which can pop up but it isn’t SOP.

A breeder who shows their birds is much more likely to have near-perfect SOP birds.

 

[LaurenRitz]

I don't either. My understanding was that white is dominant, but I could easily have that wrong.

I can't find much information about which breeds do have white skin. Yellow seems to be preferred for most breeds.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

White legs are dominant to yellow legs, yes.

It's worth noting that a yellow-shanked hen in production will often experience fading of that color from pigments being used up in the coloring of her yolks, and this is frequently to the extent that her legs look more whitish than yellow. In the pictures from Cackle Hatchery, for example, I notice that the roosters appear to have yellow color to their feet and it's mostly the hens with the appearance of white shanks. Hoover's picture is hard to tell if it's washout in the picture from the lighting, but Hoover's also has a pretty bad reputation for quality in the breeds they keep, so who knows.

Do you remember if they've always had white shanks, even before laying, or did you only recently notice? Any pictures of them that you took when they were young to check back on? If your hens are currently laying or only recently paused for the winter, then that could explain their shank color. Check those legs after they have a molt and see if that yellow color hasn't returned. If they're still white-shanked at that point, then yeah, you've got white-shank genes floating around in there from somewhere.

 

[LaurenRitz]

They're less than a year old, which doesn't preclude the shank bleaching but does make it less likely. I note that their chicks have yellow legs, though.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Interesting. I haven't had yellow-shanked layers in a long while, so I honestly don't remember how soon after point of lay that that washout occurred in them, but you're right that it's a lot less likely in that case.

If they're producing yellow-shanked chicks, they at least are split for the gene and it can be bred out pretty easily as a dominant. I don't think I could answer you on what other breed might have been crossed in to get that gene in the line, though.

 

[LaurenRitz]

K. Thanks. I'm not concerned about leg color at this point, but I thought it was interesting.