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When do you plan on picking your keeper cockerels?
I'm observing and actively deciding on that every day. So far, what I've got is that one of the Dark Dorking cockerels has a hip / back deformity, so he's off as I don't want him to pass that on to any offspring. I'm debating on Vander (?), as I'm so attached from nursing him back to health, but again, if his issues are genetic I don't want him to pass that on... And the more coppery Black Copper Marans has bitten me, so he's not likely to be a keeper. I actually was only going to decide from among the Dorkings, but the other Marans cockerel is such a sweetie so far that I've added him to the mix of possible keepers.
Meanwhile, unless he develops some undesirable personality traits as he matures, I'm fairly sure I'm going to keep the larger of the two correctly colored Red Dorking cockerels. Been thinking about naming him Dante, but I want to be sure his personality won't go south before I settle on him being a keeper. I also really like the rose comb Dark Dorking for his looks and temperament so far, and the dark gray colored Dark Dorking cockerel is SOOO handsome , but his temperament hasn't been too great so far (although he hasn't bitten me like the Marans, so there's that...). Considering I wanted to keep the Reds for a specific reason, it may be better to just choose two of them, but these other boys are making it so hard!
So that means, out of the 9 boys in the batch, so far I've narrowed it down to, err, 7 of them... But I figure I have until fall to make a final decision on them. I don't want to have to figure out housing for all of them for the winter, so that's my time limit.