I've been watching my local (near my house) flock of turkeys quite a bit in anticipation for the upcoming season. The group consists of 27 birds, broken down into 5 gobblers, just one mature long beard, 4 jakes, the rest hens, but here is the catch, there is a bearded hen in the group. She is definately a hen, but the funny thing is she is always hanging out with the gobblers and anytime the gobblers break off she tails along behind them.. Is this just a coincidence or does she think shes a gobbler! ?
Turkeys are so incredibly stupid.....nothing they do surprises me. I've only seen one bearded hen....and she was always alone. She skirted my set for 2 seasons.
OR just very SCARED. Ive seen a few bearded hens, and they have always been with other hens around me.
Over the last couple of years it really hasn't been that uncommon to see bearded hens around here. I know we got footage of several different ones last year...including one I missed! Every bearded hen I've seen while hunting has acted like any other hen.
Its not hard to tell the difference. If it has a grayish head and duller feather colors and noticably smaller than the gobblers then its a hen.
Just so you know... Toms can very in they're appearance and size just like hens and beards are very common around here for some reason. It was just a question Nate/FL, but I suppose you have done alot of hunting in Wisconsin which in turn makes you an expert right??? LOL
There are a fair amount of bearded hens here, but I've never seen one carousing with the males. Maybe she has gender confusion issues. I knew a girl like that once. Her name was Gary and she was from Michigan. Zing!
I've seen several bearded hens, (none lately though) and they were always mixed in with the regular hens.
I've even seen a hen try her best to gobble while she strutted. I agree that Turkeys may be the dumbest things in the woods except for the months of April and May.
Troy now that is quite a mix! cant say I have seen it that way before. In the last couple of months it has been a flock of 18 longbeards with 3 being jakes, everyday in the field behind my house. The last three weeks they have started dispersing as they do every year about this time. Im seeing about 6 longbeards everyday now. The hens are still MIA :D
Regardless of what state you hunt, the gobblers look like gobblers and the hens look like hens. Our Ga birds are about as small as they get, with the gobbler still out weighing the hen by 6 to 8 lbs...throw in the red, white or blue head and it becomes pretty easy to tell.:D
