Tommy and the Bearded Hen
- Thread starter don
- Start date
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Yep, I see it. I've got one on my place. I've not seen any hard data, but I have heard turkey biologists talking about bearded hens having larger clutches and successfully raising more poults. I'm not sure if that is true or not, but here is one anecdotal story.
Several years ago I was hunting spring gobblers in a blind. Any bearded bird is legal in my state in the spring, even a bearded hen. I've seen very few bearded hens in the field over my many years of hunting spring gobblers. I had been working a gobbler earlier and had been giving him the silent treatment for the last 45 minutes or so. A bearded hen came walking into the field I was hunting. I considered harvesting her simply because it would be a first for me, something unique. But if I harvested here I'd have to get her mounted and there is not much meat on a hen compared to a mature gobbler, so I decided just to watch her. She fed slowly through and eventually disappeared. About 15 minutes after I last saw her, a nice longbeard followed the same path. Well, at least a part way until he encountered my 10 gauge load.
It turned out that that spring we had a poor hatch. As I worked on the farm that summer, I saw birds from time to time. The only hen I saw with poults that summer was the one with the beard. I was glad I did not shoot her. A coincidence? Perhaps. I don't know, but it made me think about what those biologists were discussing. I doubt I'll every shoot a bearded hen now, even if the opportunity presents itself. Just a personal choice...
Cool pics by the way!
Thanks,
Jack
Several years ago I was hunting spring gobblers in a blind. Any bearded bird is legal in my state in the spring, even a bearded hen. I've seen very few bearded hens in the field over my many years of hunting spring gobblers. I had been working a gobbler earlier and had been giving him the silent treatment for the last 45 minutes or so. A bearded hen came walking into the field I was hunting. I considered harvesting her simply because it would be a first for me, something unique. But if I harvested here I'd have to get her mounted and there is not much meat on a hen compared to a mature gobbler, so I decided just to watch her. She fed slowly through and eventually disappeared. About 15 minutes after I last saw her, a nice longbeard followed the same path. Well, at least a part way until he encountered my 10 gauge load.
It turned out that that spring we had a poor hatch. As I worked on the farm that summer, I saw birds from time to time. The only hen I saw with poults that summer was the one with the beard. I was glad I did not shoot her. A coincidence? Perhaps. I don't know, but it made me think about what those biologists were discussing. I doubt I'll every shoot a bearded hen now, even if the opportunity presents itself. Just a personal choice...
Cool pics by the way!
Thanks,
Jack
ghilliehunter
5 year old buck +
Great pic! I saw this bearded hen at my place last year on a couple occasions. I never did see any hens with poults, but I was specifically on the lookout for that bearded hen. Hope she made it.
