PoultryTalk.com

From the nine eggs that I put under my light sussex I got 7 lovely chicks. I know that I have got 3 pure buff sussex,2 buff sussex/RIR,and 2 Plymouth Rock/Buff Sussex.They are now 6 weeks old and still with Mum and are happily running around with my original 5 hens and the cockeral. No problems so far and the cockeral is great with them,they sleep separately and when penned in they are separate.My question is, will there come a time when the cockeral may well fight with the cockeral chicks. I am planning on keeping the females only and wonder how soon I should decide. Am fearful of maybe getting rid of a hen if I don't give them enough time to develop.I know I have got 1 male/1 female P.Rock x but the others are more difficult to decide on at present. Of course my heart tells me they are all female!! Any advice would be great.
Jojo

The cockerel should be fine with them until way after you can tell which they are. Generally in any case there would be very little scrapping until the start of the main breeding season - spring next year. So you have plenty of time to decide which is which

As an experiment you could try the old trick of a wedding ring on a piece of cotton. Held stationary over anything it should eventually begin to swing in a circle for female, or side to side for male.

Could be an "old wives tale" but worth a try.

Let us know how accurate it is

The cockerel will be fine with them untill the youngsters become sexually mature, or start crowing, depending on the older lad, as he was there first, he might defend his ladies, or he may just accept them untill as said above, breeding season begins, in which case you'll need to separate them.
Another thing with keeping grower boys with a mixture of older males and females is, you might find that the young boys go ressessive and not mature properly having a mature cockerel around.

JubesX