I saw this mentioned in another post. How common is a beardless Jake?

Do beardless jakes have spurs?

Tom

I dont know how common it is or if they have spurs, but I can tell you just May 1st. (yesterday) I saw a beardless jake....... well if he had a beard it would've had to have been 1/8 in. long, cuz he was real close and I saw absolutely nothing. That is a good question. I hope people have input, I look forward to hearing what they have to say.

I saw 3 jakes on sunday and one of them I could not see a beard on him at all. I was even looking through my scope at him. Yet the other two birds with it had 4" beards.

The jake probably had a beard, but it was hidden in the breast feathers. If a jake has a very short beard, it isalmost impossible to see it.A jakes beard can be less than inch to 5 inches. I've heard of 6 inch beards on jakes, but that is pretty rare. Two to four inchesis most common. Jakes do not have spurs. They have bumps that will become spurs in their second year. Some bumps may be longer than others. Jakes in the south are usually larger than north because the breeding season is earlier. As they become adults the northern birds are on average sustantially larger than their southern counterparts, kind of like the deer. A 24-25 pound gobbler is a giant in most southern states, but is fairly common further north.