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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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!

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


David

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.

 


 

 

 

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

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

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.

4-8 inches and skinny.