I posted in the backyard brahma thread a while ago and am moving over here, as this may become a project and I need a little input. How young do you assess for vulture hocks in brahma? I am concerned I might be seeing this in a chick or two - no parents show the trait. Thank you.
I'm sorry, I must have missed your post in the backyard thread or I would have answered. I see it in them at about 4-6 weeks. I know that you got some of your birds out of Texas (I won't say the breeder, you know who I'm talking about), are these chicks from those? If so, you probably do have VHs, the soft kind. While not desirable, they are not a disqualification. You can tell (at about 4 months) if they are soft by feeling them. If they are stiff, they are true VHs, if they are soft and wrap around...I call those soft VHs and they are prevalent in a lot of the birds from the Greenfire lines...which is where some of those birds in Texas came from.
So, then the question becomes what to do about it. What this would tell you is that each of the parents carries the gene (it takes two to make it visible). If you breed one of the parents to a bird that does not carry the gene, then 50% of the chicks will carry the gene and 50% will not. Determining which carry and which don't is a little tricky, the best way is to breed back to one that carries both, therefore shows the VHs (either soft or true VHs).
In other words, if you aren't planning on showing these, or selling eggs from these...I wouldn't worry about it and just enjoy your chickens. If you do want to show or sell, you need to figure out where the genes are and try to eliminate them...or start over with another line.
I hope that answers your question and isn't more information than you wanted.
