Multiple Beard Toms
 

I was wondering for those of you that have bird hunted a lot, just how rare are toms with more than one beard? I have harvested about 10 birds previously, all with just one beard until this year. This year I hunted public land in Wisconsin for the first time, and both my birds, from different properties, had multiple beards. The first one had 4 and the second 2. The one with 4 is in first place in the HN turkey contest.

Just curious what percentage of toms have more than one. Thanks.

Of all my birds, i have yet to get a multi-bearded tom. But i tell ya, thats the first thing i look for when i walk up to him lol.

I had no clue for my 1st tom. However, on Sunday I had 3 coming in together to my decoy. I had lots of time to glass all 3 to pick the one I wanted. One had a thin 6" beard. I actually saw one had 2 beards before I shot.

I am inclined to think it is hereditary...I've killed 3 in the past 6-7 years that were multiple...Two with two and one with three...

i shot a double bearded jake once...

i missed a bird once that was a double beard. i know that because 2 days later my buddy and i went back and doubled on the one i missed and his buddy.

my opinion on multibeards is simple. there are pockets of birds every where that have a bunch of multi bearded birds. but multi beards can show up anywhere at any time. kind of like bearded hens or non typical bicks. some places have more than others but they show up from time to time all over.

We kill several multi bearded birds on our farms. Generally 1 out of 4 birds we kill will be multi bearded. Our DNR guys say that multi bearded birds come from bearded hens. We do have alot of bearded hens so it makes sense but I don't really know. I had trail cam pics of 2 multi bearded birds this year.

That is interesting. There was actually a bearded hen within 200 yards of my tom when I shot him! I'd seen it there the day prior as well.

I guess if it's hereditary then it is a recessive gene with both the male and female having it to pass to their offspring.

I never thought much about this until now. But I took 2 birds this year and both had multiple beards. They were taken at two different public lands.

Haha I hunted like 6 different properties over 3 weeks in WI. My 2 birds came in the first hour and last hour of my season.