Bearded hen or not it's still a hen to me and if it is big one it's better to let it's progeny increase like the bigger the breeding stock the better.
It goes for the toms also. If I were to pick between 2 Toms side by side I'll probably shoot the smaller Tom if I know there are not too many of them big ones.
Size is one thing that's genetically inherent and would love to have all turkeys in my bush size extra extra large.

I have seen many bearded hens in my years of hunting, and have taken one in Ne, and one in Mo. We have a bunch of them here in Missouri.

I have seen a couple so far scouting this year,being NY's turkey season doesn't open til May 1 st. Would be in fall season if I did happen to shoot one. Spring season in NY is Tom/Jake only. THe only way I shoot one then is if she was having a beard about 8"or longer.

I saw one Friday just wandering around. Nice beard too. But I personally wouldn't shoot one around my property because I really don't have an overabundance of birds to begin with and I need all the hens I can get. I can understand though if someone wanted to get a hen with beard mounted though. I usually see one about every other year or so somewhere around out in the countryside. So while they are definately in the minority, they are really not all that rare.