The ones with the fewest markings/smut turned out poorest over all out of 12, I culled hard early against leg color, keeping only yellow legged males. And culled harder still for size. Kept one pale legged male to watch him grow he's huge but a cull.
While for show type situations you could wait and see how one grows out over a year. For a specifically dual purpose flock I want to see as much growth early as I can get. Some of my smaller rocks did grow into the larger birds but that doesn't work at all if you're looking for meat while it's still sort of tender...
So I pushed hard against those with slow or low weight or narrow breasts because that's what is important at this point. What that stupid comb looks like I'll fix later. Though many breeders said avoid sprigs like the plague so I have done. I know from work here that size is actually elusive so I start there, and that tail color is tough to get once you don't have it, so there.
The rest I can work with over time while they're still utilitarian for food and breeding.
