I don't know what your long term goals are with your chickens, how many you plan to keep, eggs only, eggs and meat, pets, whatever. What I'm saying is I do not know what you want your mature flock to look like, how many hens and roosters. Chickens raised together get along better than chickens raised apart, then integrated.
Until they reach maturity, the pullets are just as likely to pester and dominate the cockerels as the cockerels are to dominate the pullets. It depends on the personality of the individual chickens involved. Often in a young flock, the cockerel is very low in the pecking order until he reaches full maturity and confidence. Sometimes a cockerel will mature faster than a pullet. Sometimes they don't. At 6 weeks, if you see two chicks squaring off with each other, they are just as likely to be pullets as cockerels or one of each. When they reach a level where the hormones are kicking in, you will see flock domination fights among the cocks. These will be less often and probably not as vicious if the cocks are in a bachelor flock. If you plan to keep one rooster or more than one rooster, it is better for them to be raised together with your flock. That may sound cionflicting, but it is not. The fights are overall less vicious and bloody if the final flock is raised together instead of introducing them later.
If you only want eggs or pets, you do not need a rooster. The dominant hen will probably take over most of the flockmaster duties the rooster would normally perform, such as guard duty and maintaining order.
Some people see the rooster mating the hens as pestering them. Some see it as natural. Many people report that hens are calmer if there is no rooster around. Some may say bored. It comes to a personal preference, but an all hen flock will manage fine without a rooster and usually one hen will take over those duties as I mentioned.
The recommended ratio for hens to roosters is 10 to 12 hens for each rooster. This pretty much assures all eggs are fertile yet the hens are not worn out from mating. Yet some people have ratios more of the lines of 2 roosters and 3 hens and have no problems with overmating whatever, especially if they grow up together. It depends on the personality of the individual chickens involved.
My suggestion is that you let the ones you are going to keep grow up together. If you are not going to keep some, you can separate them out after you have identified which ones are which if you wish. Until you can physically tell which are hens and roosters, I don't think you need to be in a hurry.
That's my opinion. I'm confident some others will disagree.
)
