That's an understandable approach when you want birds who don’t struggle. The vaults are something I feel weird about breeding, as sometimes vaulted birds will struggle in mixed flocks. Healthy chickens, who've got no survival issues, are pretty important to me.
Vaults, and sometimes crest size, do eat into a bird’s ability to survive. I get they’ll never be free-ranger animals, but so long as a crested bird can keep up with and hold their own against non-crested breeds, I’ll feel comfortable with their health and survivability. I’ve owned a few crested birds who’ve been integrated in and out of my layer flock(filled with non-crested bullies
). Some have fared well(my 3 mottled houdan hens who beat up pullets for fun), others haven’t(My WCB rooster who has to be separated for his own well-being, and the first ever polish I bought 2 yrs ago who died after being integrated into the flock). I had my current breeding cockerel with that layer flock previously, and aside from being a bit of an outcast when he was first introduced, he did fine. Fared better there than with his own hatchmate cockerels. I’ve got my two spare boys in with the flock right now as well, and they’re doing fine.
I've heard it be said before that polish will often have harder skulls than breeds like Silkies, which only recently had vaults bred in and thus commonly have completely open vaults, but judging by the parent stock I started with, I doubt that'll be the case for my birds.
The Ideal birds completely lacked vaults or were minimally vaulted. It just seems unreasonable to expect chicks with stronger vaults from a single generation of breeding, especially from birds who lack the trait. I have some worries about the longevity of the one larger-vaulted chick I hatched because of this, and these worries make pursuing vaults sound unpleasant, although the standard deliberating calls for them.
It’s something I debate with myself.
It’s alright. I love my crested birds, but when they cannot properly care for themselves or protect themselves, it becomes sad to have to keep them separate for safety. I much prefer crested birds who can still function normally and survive- even thrive- amongst non-crested birds. Looking beautiful shouldn’t come with a failure to survive, or detriments that make keeping birds alive and healthy difficult.
the BCW sort of impressed me in that manner of being healthy. I’ve heard so many horror stories about BCW falling over dead over nothing. I lost 8 BCW chicks from the first order, due to the cold weather when I got them. They’ve been hardy birds so far. I don’t think that correlates to the standard, but they really surprised me with not being sickly, quick-to-die birds.
.
