Blue heads on hen decoys? Help

[donjuan]

I have purchased two of the cabelas hen decoys last year.  I have had better success without them, as the birds don't tend to come in, or if they do, approach cautiously.  The light blue heads on them look nothing like the heads on the hens here in KS, so I was wondering if painting them brown would be better.  If so, have any of you done this?

[Mike Honcho]

I bought some acrylic paint in small , maybe 2 oz . bottles at the craft section at Walmart and repainted several of my decoy heads this year with excellent results.  I looked a photos of real turkeys to get the colors.
The paint is anywhere from about 88 cents a bottle to $2.00.

[FullChoke]

I always repaint the heads of all of my decoys. I figure that neither Ming Pau nor her supervisor hunt turkeys in Szechuan Province.

FC

[jims]

Not to hi-jack this post but I am also curious about re-painted a strutting decoy that has a lot of white on the head?  From what I understand the dominate tom's may often have the whitest heads?  It seems like this may intimidate lessor toms?

[FullChoke]

I always paint the jakes with a predominance of red on the caruncles, same would go for a strutter. A lot of white on the head sends a message of dominance and not all longbeards want to fight all of the time.

FC

[Mike Honcho]

Here are a couple of pics before and after on a Pretty Boy Jr. jake decoy.  The before photo (top)  I thought had too much white and blue.  This is with the Walmart craft paint and cheap small artist type brushes I bought in same section.

[donjuan]

What color do you think for the heads?  A grey and brown with a little pink on the waddle?

[Mike Honcho]

Thats what I would do on the hens.  I had some photos of ones I did,  but recently deleted them from my phone. 
You can look at photos online of high quality hen decoys like a Dave Smith , for ideas or of course real hens of the correct species.

Good luck!

[Muzzy61]

I always repaint the heads of all of my decoys. I figure that neither Ming Pau nor her supervisor hunt turkeys in Szechuan Province.

FC

Well played   

[Duke0002]

I always paint the jakes with a predominance of red on the caruncles, same would go for a strutter. A lot of white on the head sends a message of dominance and not all longbeards want to fight all of the time.

FC

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