Chicken Legs

Chicken legs.... I never paid much attention to them until I started my flock here on the farm. It was pointed out to me the other day that they do indeed come in a variety of colors.

The above young feral hen has bright yellow colored legs. Most of the domestic egg laying breeds commonly have bright yellow too. Until I actually owned chickens other than Rhode Island reds and leghorns, I thought all chickens had yellow legs like these. 

Now I have chickens with all sorts of colored legs. The feral hen, above, has green legs. Now that's cool! 

This young cockerel has dark black legs. 

And this little banty has unpigmented legs. They're pinkish white. 

This elderly hen has always had speckled legs and feet. Right now she isn't laying eggs, so her feet are grey spots on dark yellow. When she's been laying for a while her legs go grey spotted on pinkish white. 

This hen is in full egg production. Before she started laying eggs she had dark yellow legs, almost orange. Now they have paled out considerably. This is a common occurances and a way I can tell if she is still laying plenty of eggs.