Oh boy, seeing this post is kind of embarrasing now! I'm tempted to delete this or at least edit that original question. Well, it serves as a reminder that we all have to start learning somewhere!
I think I'll start with a bit of background to help explain my experience with willow legs.
So, as you can tell from that first question, I was a complete newbie to Chanteclers last spring. I happened upon a breeding trio (actually, they were purchased by my sister who also knows little of the breed, but she was under the impression they were quite a good trio). So she asked if I wanted to hatch some eggs from them. So, never one to pass up on a chance to fill the incubator, of course I accepted!
So that is the reason why I was indiscriminately hatching eggs without knowing a thing about the breed standards.
Since then the original trio has been sold, but I've looked back at pictures of them, and sure enough, one of the hens has lighter colored legs than the other.
I'm assuming that is where those willow legs came from.
I did not keep back any of the chicks with legs that looked poor colored, but I've also noticed they tend to grow out of that color and turn a nice yellow as they mature.
Maybe that is not such a good thing, because if I happened to keep some that hatched with willow legs that later turned yellow, I will not know which ones they are.
As Coopslave mentioned, that leg color trait can be passed through the rooster, but maybe in this case it was the hen?
I don't know if I can really answer this question until I see what happens with the next generations of chicks.
I have bought 2 new roosters from good and unrelated bloodlines, and plan to only breed my 2 best hens to the one best roo. I won't be hatching large quantities this year, just want to approach this in a careful way to see what I get.