The British Poultry Standard for the Japanese bantam lists a number of serious defects that should be avoided; one of these is 'long legs'. Long legs cannot be avoided in some Japanese bantam progeny (offspring). In fact, 25% of the chicks hatched will have long legs and are useless for future breeding plans as well as showing since it is not possible to produce short legged birds from them (they don't carry that gene). It is not possible to remove this 'long leg' trait by selection since the breed carries a gene that carries 'long leg' and another that carries 'short leg' length. If two 'short legged' genes are inherited then the chick will not hatch, it will die in the shell i.e. it is a lethal gene combination. Both parents carry long and short leg genes and the following combinations occur when hatching a large enough number of birds:
25% of chicks will receive two 'long leg' genes and will hatch with long legs.
25% of chicks will receive two 'short leg' genes which is lethal and will die in the shell before hatching.
50% of chicks will receive one 'long leg' and one 'short leg' gene and will have the desired short legs.
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Chicken Breeds