What causes a hen to have a beard?

Same thing that makes woman have facial hair. Turkeys gotta have standards too. You can bet a jake or a hard up 2 yr old will take care of that bearded hen though.lol

I assume it is a hormone inbalance, it can be fairly common. I have seen quite a few.

I have seen quite a few as well. Check out Missouris stats and they had quite a few checked in...

Its a conspiracy concocted by the DNR to get more money out of you...

Naw, I'm joking, its inbreeding.... damn backwoods turkeys...

The NWTF website says up to 20% of hens have beards.

A beard on a turkey is a secondary sex characteristic, just like a man growing a beard. So if you see a hen (or a woman) with a beard they have a hormone imbalance. An example would be when female athletes take steroids, they start growing beards because all that testosterone they are adding to their system.

I think the real question is this: do gobblers have the "beauty is only a light switch away" philosophy and only breed bearded hens at night? haha

I saw on the new primos spring turkey hunting video, they had footage of a hen strutting and gobbleing, it was the funniest thing to see.