Too many chicks - which to keep?

[Frankenshine]

Hi all!

I've been reading this forum for a bit, but this is my first post.

I ordered 6 chicks from a lady who was putting in a big order from McMurray, but when it was time for the chicks to arrive we lost contact, sort of, and I ended up giving up on that and making an order of my own from Ideal. I ordered 12 pullets of various LF breeds - two of each to hopefully avoid mis-sexing disappointment. I understand I'm likely to get packing peanut boys in my shipment as well; and now the aforementioned lady has contacted me to come collect my now week-old chicks. Barring any deaths, I am going to have at least 18, probably more, and that is WAY over the city ordinance where I live. Soooo...

I am sure I could get rid of extras on craigslist or through Facebook connections. My question is about how to choose which ones to keep at such a young age. My main concern is gender (girls only, for laying & non-crowing reasons), but my 9 year old is kinda-sorta interested in showing, so it would be nice to pick the prettier birds. Our last flock was strictly for laying, so this is new territory. I used to show dogs, so I'm familiar with breed standards, but have no idea what goes on in chicken judging/showing. I know hatcheries are not the place for show birds now, but it's a bit late for that.
Is it possible to assess quality in a chick? Should I grow them out a bit before deciding which ones to keep, to make sure of sex or ?? I'm only planning to keep 6-8 pullets, and I'd like a lot of variety, so perhaps one of each breed. What would you do?

Here's what I'm anticipating:
4 Black Australorps
4 Easter Eggers
2 Dominiques
2 Buff Orpingtons
2 Light Brahma
2 Silver Laced Wyandotte
2 Golden Laced Wyandotte (my daughter's favorite, so pretty!)
and some unknown number of packing peanuts

 

[Mahonri]

Keep your Brahmas and Wyandottes. then decide what you want to do with the rest.

Oh, and WELCOME TO BYC...

So glad you joined us.

 

[OrganicEggs75]

"4 Black Australorps
4 Easter Eggers
2 Dominiques
2 Buff Orpingtons
2 Light Brahma
2 Silver Laced Wyandotte
2 Golden Laced Wyandotte (my daughter's favorite, so pretty!)
and some unknown number of packing peanuts"

I would wait for chicks to fully feather out. Then Determine if any are roosters. Then pick out the best quality chickens. On the PP's You need to figure out what breed they are if your going to show...

 

[Frankenshine]

Hopefully the packing peanuts will be RIRs or some other easily identifiable breed. I was planning on just getting rid of those guys ASAP, since crowing roos would not be appreciated by my neighbors, however hypocritical that makes them... The houses here are rather close, and the last time I tried to keep a roo (a teensy bantam!) I could hear him yelling before dawn from inside the coop; me inside the house, sleeping. We are allowed one crowing bird per the ordinance, but I'd just as soon have another hen. I don't have an issue with the PPs going for meat, so I'm hoping craigslist or the local immigrant community (concentrated in my area) will help me out there

18 won't be so hard to keep up with for a while, right? Right?! LOL! My last flock was only 5 hens. A couple years into that we reared a mismatched pair of bantams, they were a cinch. We've been chickenless for almost 2 years, so I'm really excited - possibly overexcited - for my new chickies!