how good were your guesses at 2, 3, 4 weeks on the sex of a chick?

[nicoh]

I see a lot of people trying to sex non-sexlink birds at this age around here, and was wondering what the success rate is on guessing/sexing the birds at this age? Last year I had 4 chicks and guessed that 2 were definitely pullets , 1 was probably a pullet and 1 was a cockerel at about 4 weeks, but it turns out i had a really butch pullet and sort of a girly cockerel as at 9 weeks I had to reverse my cockerel/probably pullet guess. But my definitely guesses were solid.

This year I've got 4 chicks again, and only 1 in the definitely pullet category. They are only 3 weeks though. I am going to try to refrain from posting pics until next week or the week after, since it seems that guessing accuracy is directly related to how old the bird is.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It depends on the breeds some, but I usually refrain from even trying for the first few weeks. Yeah, well I don't trust my guesses may be a better way to say it. After 4 or 5 weeks, if I think it is a rooster, it usually is. But if I think it is probably a pullet, well, sometimes I'm not always right.

 

[elabraleon]

I have one hen, "ninja chicken" that I really thought was a rooster, from about 3 weeks old, up until she was about 16 weeks old. she had a huge red comb and wattles compared to my other birds and a really "cocky" attitude, combined with slow tailfeather development. She was the dark pullet coloring, but otherwise, had all the telltale roo signs. To my suprise and delight, she never developed saddle feathers. She has layed 2 nice eggs so far. (yay!) My other guesses were all correct, 3 pullets.
The end result was the desired one, although it was a confusing few months.
Here they are now:

and here they were then:

 

[bethandjoeync]

it is difficult to have a good guess on what the gender of your little chickies are when they are that small. but some on here are very familiar with certain breeds and can tell right of the bat. usually by 4 weeks you can get a sense of their personalities (dominant or not) and can get a better guess. and also feather developement helps too. but i like a surprise and don't really have a reason not to want roos.....as they will eventually end up in the freezer farm.