# Bearded Hen Pics



## phensway (Nov 30, 2004)

In the first picture she is right at the bottom and in the second picture she moves over to the right. The second picture makes her beard look around 6 inches or so! needless to say she will be on the hit list! I overlooked her the first couple of times i was studying the pics


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## hoytshooter4 (Oct 3, 2005)

Always kind of cool to see some of those walking around!


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## phensway (Nov 30, 2004)

i havent harvested one yet, but she is high on my hit list


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## 88luneke (Jan 13, 2009)

that's so weird - I've only been turkey hunting for 2 years, this will be my 3rd, never even heard of a bearded hen haha


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## phensway (Nov 30, 2004)

beards are simply a modified feather.... hens can have them but normally they dont get long like the one in the second picture


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## jem44357 (Jan 27, 2011)

The 2 I have taken both had thin beards. The one in your pic looks pretty thick. The first one by the grace of one lone strand was ~9". It is only a plaque mount tail and beard. I'll get a pic of it when I get home and measure both. I think I remember the one in this pic was a bit over 6" and does not look as full as the one in your pic. On both of mine you can see where the beard is creased from sitting on their eggs. They both had eggs inside at all different stages from a little bulb like growth all the way to a hard shell egg. The only down fall in harvesting one is they are smaller than a Tom so less meat and the dark meat is just as tough as a Tom.












phensway,

I really like you pics they get the Turkey blood in my veins flowing.

Thanks!
Jim


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## fathom this (Feb 10, 2008)

phensway said:


> beards are simply a modified feather.... hens can have them but normally they dont get long like the one in the second picture


 I have read that as many as one in twenty five hens have beards.
I have personally seen at least six in my hunting days. A time I will never forget was with my youngest son. We saw a flock of birds in a field so we drove on past to the adjacent woods. We set up about 100 yds in and proceeded to call. The birds were very vocal and came right to us. I could hear the boss hen barking at me so I mimicked her every call. To my suprise she came right to us and started to strut around us like a tom, she was very mad. She looked every bit like a tom in her actions but she was so close ( five yds at times ) that there was no mistake she was the boss hen. I would stop talking to her and let her rejoin the flock. When she would get about twenty five yards off I would bark at her again and she would come running back and start her tirade all over again. I called her in four times until my son and I could not contain our laughing anymore. Even though this hen had no visible beard she acted like a tom in every way. Her tail fanned out and wings in the strut position she even drummed and purred loudly. Of all times to not have my camera while scouting.


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## phensway (Nov 30, 2004)

If I am lucky i will have one of these next year!


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## phensway (Nov 30, 2004)

at the end of one of my primos turkey videos they show footage of a hen strutting and gobbling. It is unbelievable!


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## FREEPOP (Apr 11, 2002)

I've had hens puff up but not a full strut. I've had several beat the poop outa my decoy. We have a flock near us that has several hens with beards. Got game cam pics last night.


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## phensway (Nov 30, 2004)

i would like to have a nice one mounted but i would hate to burn a spring tag on a hen..... if i ever start fall turkey hunting i would shoot a bearded hen in a heartbeat


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## old graybeard (Jan 19, 2006)

I've only seeen one bearded hen over the years and I took her, she had a heavier beard then the one pictured here that was 9" long.


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## Fred Bear (Jan 20, 2000)

I got a bearded hen last year. The only reason I took her was because I wasnt sure when I would have the opportunity again.


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## phensway (Nov 30, 2004)

Fred Bear said:


> I got a bearded hen last year. The only reason I took her was because I wasnt sure when I would have the opportunity again.


Thats how i feel.... i have probably seen around 10 bearded hens total since i started turkey hunting. Had chances but took toms instead


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## casscityalum (Aug 27, 2007)

phensway said:


> Thats how i feel.... i have probably seen around 10 bearded hens total since i started turkey hunting. Had chances but took toms instead



What will your team say??? Lol
_OutdoorHub Mobile, the information engine of the outdoors_


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## adam bomb (Feb 27, 2006)

Thats one of the biggest beards ive seen on a hen. Good luck.


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## phensway (Nov 30, 2004)

adam bomb said:


> Thats one of the biggest beards ive seen on a hen. Good luck.


Thats what i was thinking


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## Jigin-N-Grinin (Jan 22, 2008)

I have two hens in one of my flocks both sporting 6-7" beards. Very cool to see but personally, I dont see myself ever wanting to kill one.....Thats just how I roll. To others....it my be a trophy. 

My kid told me a couple weeks ago that he thinks it would be a waist of his tag...."no spurs and no fan to hang on the wall"... he says.:lol:
I had to laugh when I heard this from a little punk.


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## TSS Caddis (Mar 15, 2002)

adam bomb said:


> Thats one of the biggest beards ive seen on a hen. Good luck.


Not sure how long this one is.


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

is not a hen...it's a tom without spurs, which also occasionally happens. Look at all the pink on his head. Primary wing feathers, too. Tom

I've taken a bearded hen, 7 inches long, in the fall, and she was with other hens with a total brood of about 20 juveniles, some of which were hers. 

Bearded hens are not all that common, but not rare, either, especially in high populations. 

It's rare, really rare, but there is such a thing as a hermaphrodite in wild turkeys. I think I've got that spelling correct, maybe not. Anyway, that's a bird with sexual characteristics of both genders. I once called in what three of us were certain was a tom, it gobbled, not gargled, it came to a call in strut, it had a beard plus stubby little spurs, and it died. When opened up we found unlaid eggs in it. It was confirmed as a hermaphrodite by a wild turkey biologist. 

Pretty common in domestic fowl, he said. 

But I think the original conversation was about birds with lots of white in them, which is also not uncommon in mid and southern Michigan.


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## Pier Pressure (Dec 21, 2008)

casscityalum said:


> What will your team say??? Lol
> _OutdoorHub Mobile, the information engine of the outdoors_


 rotest_e :tsk::irked::16suspect:rant:


We'd probably say all of the above.:lol:


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## jem44357 (Jan 27, 2011)

Just an update form my earlier post. The one hanging on my wall is 7 1/2" and is the same thickness as the one in the pic. The one in the pic is 7 1/4". The crease from nesting is at about 7" Sorry for the exaggeration. Hey if you average them I was pretty close.

My next trophy is a white color phase bearded hen, spurs would be a bonus. I'm kinda board shootin Toms... NOT! I tend to save them for other hunters in my camp... that way I do not have to clean them. 

Good luck to all!
Jim


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## TSS Caddis (Mar 15, 2002)

Linda G. said:


> is not a hen...it's a tom without spurs, which also occasionally happens. Look at all the pink on his head. Primary wing feathers, too. Tom


Hmm, I guess the poults I saw it hatch should have called it Dad then.:lol:

I'll give you the head does look somewhere between a hen and a tom, but it was what it was, unless it was a tom that decided to sit a nest and raise poults while the hen was out shopping for weeks on end  Not typically a Tom trait to do that though


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## phensway (Nov 30, 2004)

its a hen.


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## QDMAMAN (Dec 8, 2004)

> casscityalum said:
> 
> 
> > What will your team say??? Lol
> > _OutdoorHub Mobile, the information engine of the outdoors_


What does he care? They're there to support HIM.:evil::lol:


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## phensway (Nov 30, 2004)

QDMAMAN said:


> What does he care? They're there to support HIM.:evil::lol:


You just cannot resist can you? how about you go to my profile and search all threads started by phensway and just highjack all of those too! :lol:


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

send it to a biologist and see what they think. It could be something really strange. 

The head shape and streamlining does look like a hen, but that's all. The rest of the head, with the pink nodules, the body feathering, and the wing feathers, are that of a tom. 

How do you know for a fact that it was this bird sitting on a clutch and hatching out poults? Or did you just see it running with hens and poults? That would also be odd for a tom to do, especially in the summer, but you do see it occasionally.


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## Fred Bear (Jan 20, 2000)

thats a hen. Last year people questioned the hen I shot too. After you see enough hens and mature toms its not to hard to tell the difference. Kind of like telling a button from a doe. Just takes some practice.


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

well, in 22 years of hunting, and thousands of birds in seven different states, not to mention all the birds I see every winter during the winter feeding season, I've only seen one other bird that turned out to be a hen that looked like a tom...and on close examination, that bird didn't really look like a tom, just acted like one, and had a nice long beard. Guess this bird is the second one.


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## TSS Caddis (Mar 15, 2002)

Linda G. said:


> How do you know for a fact that it was this bird sitting on a clutch and hatching out poults? Or did you just see it running with hens and poults? That would also be odd for a tom to do, especially in the summer, but you do see it occasionally.


Because I saw it every day.


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## Jigin-N-Grinin (Jan 22, 2008)

adam bomb said:


> Thats one of the biggest beards ive seen on a hen. Good luck.


 
You know Adam.....With exception to the women......they dont grow em' very large in your neck of the woods.


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