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Post by campkingmd on May 6, 2005 7:40:34 GMT -5
My buddy shot a turkey yesterday and called me to tell me about it. He said it walked out onto the feild about 30 yards , he could see the beard so he shot, he rolled it over. After further inspection he noticed no spurs and the beard was about 5 inches long, I said that was odd, then he told me it had an egg in it , I am no turkey expert but I new that was not a Tom. I made a few calls to my turkey expert freinds and they told me that some hens will grow beards but not usually that long, This was a rare bird, kinda like a albino 10 pt or a doe with antlers. Have any of you guys ever experienced this before.
Charlie
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Post by hatracked on May 6, 2005 8:00:51 GMT -5
I see at least one or two every season . This year on one hunt we had two come into less than five yards , Matter of fact it was a bearded hen that came in first and checked out our carrylite. After she dubbed it ok to be around, another dozen plus hens rolled into the set dragging two huge longbeards with them. One of the hens had a 7 inch beard the other was well over 8. Those beards were unusually long but looked real good throughout the 25 minutes of film I got of them.
I dont think they are nearly as rare as an albino , in fact from what Ive seen in the woods its probably 1 out of 200 have some kind of beard. I think local genetics has alot to do with it , it was obvious to me the two we called in this year were broodmates.
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Post by freedomrules3 on May 6, 2005 16:40:59 GMT -5
Ive never seen any but have heard of a few from friends here. I also think they are area specific, don't think there are many around here yet. would make you wanna shoot it though for some reason.
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Post by scdave449 on May 7, 2005 13:17:07 GMT -5
For some reason; hopefully a mistake in identity similar to the bird in question. S.C.'s regs. changed this year to read "Bearded gobblers" being legal. Most anyone I know that has killed a bearded hen and reported them has had no problem with DNR, no repercusions at all. I will agree with hat's estimate for the areas we hunt, and that they can't be as rare as an albino; having only seen a very few albino deer and absolutely no albino turkeys.Cool deal, I would treat it as a trophy of an unusual type, and be sure not to replicate that again. Keep in mind, if it's red on the head(bright blue, white) odds are it will be legal. scdave
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