Turkey Question for the guru's

jokester · 05-23-2008, 12:06 PM

Seeing as I didn't want to hi-jack sprigkiller09's thread, I thought i'd start my own and ask the question.

What causes a beard to grow on a hen? Am I correct in assuming if a hen from one species can grow a beard, then a hen from another species can as well? How common is a bearded hen?

-jokester

beardbuster · 05-23-2008, 12:15 PM

If it is not part of their species in general, I highly doubt that you would see a beard on other species other than a turkey.

Kind of how the male human has facial hair. Most women don't, but then a couple of them do... Actual women, not Lola. He was born with right to have facial hair.

La La La La La Lola.

Limbhanger · 05-23-2008, 12:29 PM

1 in 7, or so develop beards. Some will even strut like a gobbler.....

Normal hens are called Jenny's........so are these other ones called Ellen's, or Rosie's ??

QH's Paw · 05-23-2008, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Limbhanger

1 in 7, or so develop beards. Some will even strut like a gobbler.....

Normal hens are called Jenny's........so are these other ones called Ellen's, or Rosie's ??

That seems like a pretty high ratio. I see probably more than 200 hens a season(when I hunt them). I don't remember seeing more than 2-3 a season. Is that number from your experience or are there actual scientific stats somewhere that reflect that, just curious? I'm no Guru, but I'd say it's more like 1 in 50-75 in the areas I've hunted. Maybe I should look closer, I might be overlooking the really short bearded hens. It really doesn't matter what the ratio is, I'm still not gonna shoot a hen in the spring.

TURKEYSLAYER · 05-23-2008, 01:06 PM

All the beard is, is a modified brest feather, found on about 10% of the hens. Usually they are bent or dogleg. I to have seen a hen in full strut, she dang near went home with me...

I did shoot a spurless gobbler on year???

Wingmaster · 05-23-2008, 01:45 PM

A quick search of the web revelaed this neat old article:http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v07...0441-p0446.pdf
"THE BEARD OF THE WILD TURKEY BY A. W. SCHORGER"

Quote:

Castration of young males does not prevent growth of the beard, and its development is therefore independent of a male hormone. It is usually found on the male but occurs quite frequently on females, particularly of the domestic strains. Information on the occurrence of a beard in the female Wild Turkey is scanty. According to Audubon (1831), females show a beard after attaining an age of three to four years. Unfortunately there is no reliable method of aging a female that is more than a year old. McDowell (1954) examined 557 female Wild Turkeys killed by hunters in Virginia and found that only four had beards. This is less than one per cent. In contrast, of 230 pen-reared female Wild Turkeys, having an age of 14 months, 17 (7.4 per cent) "bore
beards that protruded beyond the contour breast feathers." Since every female has the prominence from which a beard may arise,
it is necessary to part the breast feathers to determine whether a beard is present.

Incidence of beards in female Domestic Turkeys is occasionally
high. Stanley J. Marsden of the Agricultural Research Service,
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, in March,
1957, kindly examined 1373 Beltsville Small White females from
446 SC}XORa,B•Re,a rdo f Wild Turkey [FV Aoulk.7 4
6 to 11 months of age. He found that 122 (8.9 per cent) had beards
ranging in length from 3 to 63 millimeters, the average being 26
millimeters. Particularly interesting was his discovery of three
females with multiple beards, two, three, and five respectively.
McDowell (op. cit.) has suggested that the high incidence of beards
in pen-reared female Wild Turkeys may be due to nutritional or
genetic factors.

Pretty neat.

Wingmaster · 05-23-2008, 01:51 PM

Another:

Productivity of Bearded Wild Turkey Hens in South Texas
By Samuel L. Beasom
The Journal of Wildlife Management, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Jan., 1970), pp. 183-186 (article consists of 4 pages)

http://www.jstor.org/pss/3799507

Limbhanger · 05-23-2008, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QH's Paw

That seems like a pretty high ratio. I see probably more than 200 hens a season(when I hunt them). I don't remember seeing more than 2-3 a season. Is that number from your experience or are there actual scientific stats somewhere that reflect that, just curious? I'm no Guru, but I'd say it's more like 1 in 50-75 in the areas I've hunted. Maybe I should look closer, I might be overlooking the really short bearded hens. It really doesn't matter what the ratio is, I'm still not gonna shoot a hen in the spring.

Just something I read from the NWTF.
I have a picture of a strutting hen that I saw out of Elkton, I will try to find it and post it. I had heard of it before, but never seen it till then.

shinook65 · 05-23-2008, 03:33 PM

Sorry for the hi-jack, but last weekend I was listening to the birds wake up.. Hen talking, gobbler answering from the same tree.. When it finally flew down, my son said "bearded hen".. It started yelping, then GOBBLED! It walked around yelp yelp yelp gobble gobble gobble. Yelp yelp GOBBLE. Puttt Gobble GOBBLE gobble! It was the funniest thing I've ever seen turkey hunting.. (Son air-balled his bow shot, hence new nickname "AirBall")... VERY confused bird!!

beardbuster · 05-24-2008, 06:54 AM

The beard on a hen is exactly like a toms, just not as thick or long in some cases. In my 13 years of turkey hunting I have seen hundreds of turkeys and probably 20 hens with visible beards. I have a photo (somewhere) of a bearded hen we trapped in Roseburg with ODFW. She was sporting a beard that was at least 9 inches long.

Last year we filmed a hen at 15 yards strutting, I have heard a hen gobble once. Sounded like a very young jake.

Critr Gitr · 05-25-2008, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jokester

What causes a beard to grow on a hen? How common is a bearded hen?

Oregon's Cosmic Convergence Center located east of Veneta and west of Springfield is know to influence the production of bearded hens. To date, scientists and sociologists alike observe the anomaly but have no real explanation.

They are fairly common at a weekly gathering know as the Saturday Market.

Another annual flocking activity will be occuring soon in Veneta known as the Country Fair. Definately a loction where you have the opportunity to see a bearded hen (or two).

beardbuster · 05-25-2008, 11:12 AM

Some of these beared hens may turn out to be Mother-In-Laws... so be careful when approaching from the down wind side

jokester · 05-25-2008, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Critr Gitr

Oregon's Cosmic Convergence Center located east of Veneta and west of Springfield is know to influence the production of bearded hens. To date, scientists and sociologists alike observe the anomaly but have no real explanation.

They are fairly common at a weekly gathering know as the Saturday Market.

Another annual flocking activity will be occuring soon in Veneta known as the Country Fair. Definately a loction where you have the opportunity to see a bearded hen (or two).

Come to think of it...I have seen some of these bearded hens that you speak of at Saturday market

-jokester