My yard has been turned into a Wild Turkey display
area. The yard is large enough for the
toms to spread out, but they all stay in a bunch and display together.
I’ve been watching to see if the toms interact any differently
with the bearded hens. So far, it seems
that the beards don’t make any difference.
This hen has a decided kink to her beard which makes her
easy to identify.
It’s usually easier to see the beard in profile.
I’ve been trying to get the two bearded hens together in the
same shot. I was happy to get this shot,
but as soon as it was taken, I noticed a third bearded hen farther out in the
yard.
The toms continually move up on the hens and the hens are
constantly moving away. That makes it
somewhat difficult to get a shot of them standing still.
Out of 23 hens in the yard, three had beards. That seems a rather high percentage. It took quite a while for the three with
beards to group together and stand with their beards exposed.
The two hens on the right and the one in the lower left all
have beards. That confirms three with
beards, but I’m not sure that’s all there are.
Another hen came to the yard later in the day in the company of five
others and she carried a small wispy beard unlike any displayed here. I wonder if my flock is trending toward all
beards.
