Let’s talk vaulted skulls in the silkie breed

Let’s talk vaulted skulls.
Both Silkies and Polish are crested breeds, so it’s not unusual to see chicks hatch with a vaulted skull — meaning the skull bones at the top of the head haven’t completely fused yet. In Polish, a degree of vaulting has historically been tied to crest development and is more widely accepted in that breed. In Silkies, however, a vaulted skull is not a requirement of the Standard of Perfection and is generally considered an undesirable structural fault when it becomes excessive. A mild vault may not cause any issues, but a large open vault leaves the brain with very little bony protection and can increase the risk of injury or neurological problems.

Vaulting is what we call polygenic, which means it is influenced by several different genes working together rather than a single “vault gene.” Because of that, even two birds with strong, closed skulls can occasionally produce a chick with some degree of vaulting, which is why you occasionally might hatch a chick from our silkie eggs with a vaulted skull. It’s simply part of the genetic variation in crested breeds. Responsible breeders pay attention to this by checking skulls on chicks, avoiding pairing birds with extreme vaults, and making skull integrity a priority right alongside crest quality.

If you want to check your own chicks, gently run a fingertip across the top of the head, a firm bump on the top of the head is a vault. You can also refer to the photo below and compare your own chicks to my examples.

Here at Akers Farm, we breed for beautiful crests on strong skulls — balance is always the goal. Vaults are NOT necessary for a beautiful crest, in fact all of my breeders birds are not vaulted and they still have beautiful crests. Many breeders do not “cull” out vaults from their silkie flocks, so in the end it’s the choice of the individual breeder since it’s not against SOP.  

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!  If I don’t already know the answer, we can figure it out together. If you enjoyed this educational post let me know… and I’ll continue to do more of these in the future!