Are they rare or not really? I've never seen one until now. It has a pretty good beard as well. 7-8 inches.

I have been turkey hunting for about 15 years and I have only seen three. I would not call them rare but definitely not common. All three had pretty thin beards in the seven inch range.

It depends. I hunted a buddy's property a few years ago in the spring that had 3 bearded hens running on it. I couldn't bring myself to shoot one in the spring, but would probably take one in the fall.

Like others, I have seen a few in my lifetime as well. I agree, their beards are very thin and pencil like. I would pass as well and rather take a gobbler because of his much thicker and longer beards and most importantly, those spurs!!!

Well hate me if you will but on my 20th year my constant hunting partner called in a bearded hen - it was my third in a lifetime - since then I have seen at least a dozen more but I took her for my harvest tag as it was legal..

Didn't knock a feather out of her either. Pin her to the ground to prevent that.
She now graces my wall.......I can still see her come caterwauling walking all the way in looking for that hen that was so sassy calling back to her.....man she was mad!



That is her standing. 17 lbs - 7 inch beard - an Upper Michigan Cedar Swamp hen and next to her is my 10th year third double beard Wisconsin bird taken the same yr. And those are over 20 yrs ago. Since then I have seen many bearded hens with one hen with a good 10 incher in TN.


He was 20 lb with a 10.5 and a 5.25 beard with 1 inch spurs. He was a Peterson farm bird I found on a strut area all alone.



Dave....JW

Not really sure how true it is but I've been told that multiple bearded Toms come from bearded hens. The area I've been hunting lately I've seen several bearded jakes and maybe 5 different bearded hens the last couple of years.

I usually have several bearded hens around. Several years ago I called in a group of turkeys, 3 gobblers and 11 hens. 9 of the 11 were bearded. We do have several multi bearded gobblers as well and I have heard the same thing kellyguinn

I've seen 3 in 21 years, the first turkey I ever took was a bearded hen, I was so confused, it has a beard it must be a tom, but it has a hens head it has to be a hen.... must be a bearded hen ok well that's legal here....boom 6 3/4 inch beard. I've learned a lot since then lol.

Not a great pic b/c I just snapped it off my laptop screen
with my cell phone but there are 3 bearded hens in this pic.

I have taken a bearded Eastern and a bearded Meriams hen. Kinda got me thinking about a bearded hen grand slam! They seem to be fairly common in my area. I took the Eastern which had a 7 1/2" beard and have passed several since. The Meriams only had a 3 1/2" beard.