At what age do you really start critiquing your grow outs? I'd really like to start a CL project since experience with chicks found in my area has not been good and autosexing extremely lacking. I've learned a lot from following this group but have so much to learn. I absolutely love the one CL pullet I have and I know she came from excellent stock since she came from a member of this group but I'd love to hear what what could be improved on since I'm watching her development and hope to use her in my program. My girl is currently 11 weeks old.
Not that I am an experienced breeder but based on all I have read and research I have done I can say the following
I think some things are obvious early while others are not. I think in general for Pullets you want them to hit laying age cockerels may take a bit longer but let me take a stab at some things
1) Hatch to 1 week you want to cull for any major defects and any ambiguous autosexing birds (cull meaning remove from breeding program)
2) @ up to 12 weeks you want to probably mark things like wry tail toes and begin looking at things like wing carriage, width, back length and basic frame issues keel etc. (you can grow these birds out to processing weight (along with any marked earlier)
3)Pullets that begin laying (approx 24 weeks) can be culled for off color egg laying/ Cockerels can be culled for general aggressiveness around this same age their hormones have calmed a bit by then. make a final cull of anyone who express undesirable traits that will dominate the breeding. These would be major drawbacks that you don't want being carried forward.
From here on out the selection process is a bit more complex some things take more maturing and others change with age. While the old saying build the barn before painting it holds true, with this breed more than some though you will want to deal with some coloration issues early because bringing in good color from a rickety barn will set you backward quite a bit.
Comb Wattles and feather colors seem to have lots of late variation to them so I would not cull too early for things like this also be aware that if a bird has some good traits try hard to keep them as it will prevent you from closing off parts of your line. Losing your main cock and replacing him from outside will create more havoc to the breeding program than using a lesser quality but related bird. A breeder of the Pita Pintas I have recently had to switch her males because the selected male wasn't exhibiting the fertility desired. So sometimes even when we select for great visual traits we get blindsided by the actual birds behavior and internal genetics.
Above all be patient.
