Bearded hen question

[adeeden]

Does anyone know roughly what percentage of hens have beards? I have been turkey hunting for along time and only seen one, which I managed to sneak an arrow into yesterday. After that it got me to thinking how common, or uncommon are bearded hens?

[TRAP]

I've seen a half dozen or so in 30 years of turkey hunting so they must not be real common.  Trap

[rg176bnc]

Ive heard 1 in 16.  From looking at large flocks of hens I would say thats about right.  They are tough to see sometimes.

[Stone Knife]

I have heard around 10% they are actually quite common in this area.

[twosheds]

I've seen three this year. Had a chance to throw an arrow at one last year but passed due to her nest I found about ten yards from my blind. Tripper

[Dave2old]

Here in CO I've never seen a single one, dead or alive, so maybe they're less common among Merriam's mountain birds. I wish they were more common as I much prefer the more tender hen meat. I did once kill a gobbling tom with a 6" beard that had a fully developed egg inside "him." Variety is always interesting. Dave

[dino]

I see several every year around here.  I had one at about 3 feet last year opening morning.  I could reached out and grabbed her by the neck.  dino

[alligatordond]

I see several each year during the spring season. They are not uncommon in this neck of the woods.

[Guru]

pretty common if you study what you're looking at with good bino's.....naked eye misses a lot at a distance...

[adeeden]

Ok, another question for you guys that have seen them. Whats the average beard legnth? This one had a 6 inch beard about 1/3 the thickness of an average gobbler for reference.

[BigRonHuntAlot]

Anywhere from a stub to 8 inches is what I have seen.

[owlbait]

I've seen a few here in West Michigan. Our local turkey "experts" advise not to shoot them because they believe they hatch out more multiple beard toms. I don't know if that is possible. The last one I saw was actually semi-strutting in front of another hen!

[Huntrdfk]

Like most above we have quite a few around here, I usually manage to see a couple each year....


David

[Stone Knife]

Most all hen beards are kind of like a pencil, all that I have seen have had a distinctive wave in them. Here are three examples.

   


   

   

   

[alligatordond]

Most here run to 6-8 inches max and very thin

[Dave2old]

Jim (Stone Knife) -- great pics! I didn't know about the kink. Sometimes I think even the best biologists could learn something from us humble hunters! Thanks, dave

[adeeden]

Stone knife, Thanks for the pictures. The one I shot also had a kink to the beard it's not as defined as the ones in your pictures but it's definatley there.

[rg176bnc]

4-8 inches and skinny.