Thanks for the input, I've just been quite surprised at the differences between some of these cockerels! They'll all be kept until at least 6 months for further evaluation, I might try to go ahead and mark these more mature looking ones so I'll be able to tell who they are down the line... now to get around to getting that done!
As for the crooked toe, I wish I could say for sure whether it was there as a chick or not... I did check toes when they arrived as hatchlings, and I didn't note any problems, but it's not as noticeable when you pick them up compared to when they're standing on the ground... we handle these chicks on a daily basis, so I'm thinking I would have noticed if it was present earlier, they were probably 4 weeks old when I noticed it somewhat suddenly... There was also the few days I took the girls to the beach and my husband was manning the farm, he was moving the brooder coop and said that he accidentally set it down on someone's leg/foot ever so briefly, checked on them afterwards and said they looked fine, but of course when he got around to telling me about it, he couldn't remember which breed of chick it was. So there's a fairly decent chance that it was an injury, but I can't be certain, so he'll be put with the meat birds when old enough. Leaves me with 4 more cockerels to pick from if I decide to pursue the silver grays... not sure about that yet! Thanks again!
