Brittany, I hope you have some great hatches underway! I have my first hatch in the incubators as we speak. Some of the things to watch in young chicks are leg color and absence of muff and beards. Any yellowish or greenish yellow leg colored chicks need to go. Wheaten and Blue Wheaten chicks should have flesh colored legs when hatched and they will eventually change to a nice slate color in adult age. Signs of no muffs and beards on chicks that are growing out are gone in my program. Breeding Blacks, as the chicks grow out I cull any that show a purplish feather sheen compared to a greenish feather sheen. Straight black with no sign of a developing sheen are kept and watched upon further grow out. As the birds continue to grow out, I watch the combs, extremely large and or floppy combed birds are culled. These are some of my main concerns on newly hatched to mid grow out stage. I do not cull for conformation at this stage unless you find a definite problem (Wry Tail, etc,) I normally try to separate cockerels and pullets at 3-4 months of age. I try to keep numbers down in the cockerel pens unless they have a large run and nesting area. I keep them on a high protein feed, I like Purina Flock Raiser. Now is the time to just sit and watch them grow out. Start comparing them tp the Standard of Perfection and keep watching for your best prospects. This is usually when you start remarking "I wish that I could put that tail on this other bird, or wow if that comb was on that other bird, or I sure like the way this bird carries himself, but does not have the eye color of some of the other prospects. At this point, I try to keep about 6 cockerel prospects and 12 or so pullets. I usually keep these until at least 10 months of age until I keep my final choices. I learned the hard way by only keeping 1 new cockerel. Predators and our severe winters can cull your best breeder prospects. Predators always seem to go after the cream of the crop and winter weather seems to go after your older breeders. I don't usually have the same concerns with hens due to the larger numbers in my flock. I hope some of this may help. I'm sure there are other ABC members out there with other suggestions, and will chime in with their ideas. I could always use new ideas, even at my age. That's what is great about the ABC Forum. All of us ABC members coming together helping each other out and furthering the advancement of the breed!