Which chicken breeds have herniated skulls?

[MysteryChicken]

I’ve been reading up on this recently myself. There seems to be an association between the crest gene (Cr) and vaulted skulls but it is not real clear. The crest is incomplete dominant as far as I understand. I too have non-vaulted silkies with awesome crests. I believe from what I have read that the vaulted skull was brought in using Polish in order to increase the appearance of the crest. I also have had both vaulted and non-vaulted in the same clutch of chicks.
Photo is two young pullets that I sold as chicks to the same person. The birds are full siblings. One had a vaulted skul and one didn’t, you can see the difference but both have nice crests.View attachment 2837340

Only one of my silkies has a Vaulted Skull, & that's a blue partridge hen I have. The father is also blue partridge, but is none Vaulted.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

In my research about this topic it seems that among Swedish Flower Hen breeders, it’s not recommended to breed two crested birds together in order to avoid the development of a vaulted skull, though I can find no evidence on how this actually would happen.
Another example of a crested bird is the crested cream leg bar and they do not appear to have any issues with developing vaulted skulls, so I think the genetics of these two things and how they may be associated involves several different genes.

 

[Shell from Zim]

Interesting info. Thank you. I did not think the silkie genes were in my birds originally because they don't have any extra toes. Also because the crests on my vaulted birds are pretty large, to the point of visual impairment, though not as large as a Polish. Now I'm re thinking Happy Sunday everyone

 

[Shell from Zim]

Vault sizes vary. These vaults cover the entire top of these chicks skulls. Only the very best mothers can keep their vaulted babies in Hukumatapa

 

[Leo1]

Spitzhaubens can have holes or thin spots in the top of the skull too, even without a great big vault.

(I had a few cockerels to butcher, and I was curious, so after they were dead I took the skin off the top of the skulls to get a good look, and I compared with some normal skulls from other breeds.)

Did they all have it? Was it significant? I just learned about vaulted skulls and the vulnerability to brain injury and wondering if it applies to these guys too. I've removed houdans from my to get list because of this.

 

[NatJ]

Did they all have it? Was it significant? I just learned about vaulted skulls and the vulnerability to brain injury and wondering if it applies to these guys too. I've removed houdans from my to get list because of this.

No, it was not all of them.

Looking back at my notes, it seems that I checked three, on different days. Each time I compared with one or two skulls from other breeds (not always the same other breed, but always not-crested.)

One Spitzhauben skull seemed completely normal.

One appeared to have a slight raised area (not big enough to be a vault), but no holes or weak spots.

The third also had the small raised area, again not big enough to be a vault. There did not seem to be any actual holes, but that skull did have a weak spot: when I poked around with the point of a knife, the knife went in with a crunch, which did not happen with the normal skull I was comparing it to. That particular bird did have a larger crest than the other two (larger than a Spitzhauben is supposed to have.)

For those particular Spitzhaubens, I think two were fine, and the third was probably still strong enough to protect the bird's brain under all normal conditions.

Taking off the skin and poking with a knife works fine on a dead chicken, but of course I wouldn't do it to a live one! For a live chicken, I suppose a person could gently feel with a finger (might detect big holes), or maybe take the bird to a vet for x-ray (probably not worth the money unless you were trying to select birds for breeding and wanted to be sure of nice solid skulls.)

If you are looking for pretty chickens to have in a backyard flock, and want to order chicks with a reasonable chance of strong-enough skulls, I do not think you need to avoid Spitzhaubens (based on my small sample of 3).

 

[Perris]

you may find this useful
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-ask-anything-to-nicalandia-thread.1509343/post-26495465

 

[Leo1]

No, it was not all of them.

Looking back at my notes, it seems that I checked three, on different days. Each time I compared with one or two skulls from other breeds (not always the same other breed, but always not-crested.)

One Spitzhauben skull seemed completely normal.

One appeared to have a slight raised area (not big enough to be a vault), but no holes or weak spots.

The third also had the small raised area, again not big enough to be a vault. There did not seem to be any actual holes, but that skull did have a weak spot: when I poked around with the point of a knife, the knife went in with a crunch, which did not happen with the normal skull I was comparing it to. That particular bird did have a larger crest than the other two (larger than a Spitzhauben is supposed to have.)

For those particular Spitzhaubens, I think two were fine, and the third was probably still strong enough to protect the bird's brain under all normal conditions.

Taking off the skin and poking with a knife works fine on a dead chicken, but of course I wouldn't do it to a live one! For a live chicken, I suppose a person could gently feel with a finger (might detect big holes), or maybe take the bird to a vet for x-ray (probably not worth the money unless you were trying to select birds for breeding and wanted to be sure of nice solid skulls.)

If you are looking for pretty chickens to have in a backyard flock, and want to order chicks with a reasonable chance of strong-enough skulls, I do not think you need to avoid Spitzhaubens (based on my small sample of T

No, it was not all of them.

Looking back at my notes, it seems that I checked three, on different days. Each time I compared with one or two skulls from other breeds (not always the same other breed, but always not-crested.)

One Spitzhauben skull seemed completely normal.

One appeared to have a slight raised area (not big enough to be a vault), but no holes or weak spots.

The third also had the small raised area, again not big enough to be a vault. There did not seem to be any actual holes, but that skull did have a weak spot: when I poked around with the point of a knife, the knife went in with a crunch, which did not happen with the normal skull I was comparing it to. That particular bird did have a larger crest than the other two (larger than a Spitzhauben is supposed to have.)

For those particular Spitzhaubens, I think two were fine, and the third was probably still strong enough to protect the bird's brain under all normal conditions.

Taking off the skin and poking with a knife works fine on a dead chicken, but of course I wouldn't do it to a live one! For a live chicken, I suppose a person could gently feel with a finger (might detect big holes), or maybe take the bird to a vet for x-ray (probably not worth the money unless you were trying to select birds for breeding and wanted to be sure of nice solid skulls.)

If you are looking for pretty chickens to have in a backyard flock, and want to order chicks with a reasonable chance of strong-enough skulls, I do not think you need to avoid Spitzhaubens (based on my small sample of 3).

Thank you!

 

[Leo1]

you may find this useful
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-ask-anything-to-nicalandia-thread.1509343/post-26495465

One of those poor birds has no top on their skull at all!