I went turkey hunting out in Wyoming last week. The guide told me the day before my hunt to not get caught up on the beard length, and to just make sure he has a full fan due to freezing. To make a long story short I killed a bird with a full fan, but when I picked him up his beard was barely sticking out of his feathers. Here is my question. The beard was NOT discolored on the ends like it had been froze, so what else could have caused this? The beard was not Evan either all the hairs were different lengths but all were under 2inches. Iv been reading about mites, rot, freezing, and a mineral deficiency. I know it was not shot off because I couldn't even see his body when I shot, just waddles up. All I knew was that he had a full fan
Ice forming on beard fibers and breaking them off is my guess. If turkeys didn't scratch they'd all have 15" + beards.
Following.... I killed a mature turkey this spring with full fan and nice spurs and a 5 inch beard with no orange or rust like it had beard rot — and I'm really not in freeze off territory—- Arkansas
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Here is one that I shot a few springs ago that had beard rot. He came in with two other mature toms and was clearly the one who had breeding rights.
Your guide was correct, don't get caught up on beards when hunting Merriam's in Western states. You'll find many of them won't have much of a beard. You'll see an improvement in the Pacific NW where snowfall decreases. I'm happy if a bird has a 6 to 8" beard. Often you can see there is the full stub of a beard broken at varying lengths. You'll also see some poor genetics with some birds barely having a beard.
I've seen this in Colorado and Montana and to some degree in Nebraska's Pine Ridge. What you killed would be par for the course with Merriam's.
I killed two birds that had the rust colored banding in their beards. I was told that it is a nutritional deficiency in their diet during that particular growing period. It may weaken the beard, but they obviously don't always become so brittle that they break off.
It's hard to tell in the pic, but that second beard has 5 distinct rust bands. Does that means he lived through 5 rough winters? I don't know.
Shot one in Montana last year, full fan, decent spurs, it had 3 beards, longest one was 2.5 inches, it didn't freeze off, no red in beard which would indicate a deficiency, like Hobbes said, probably genetics, was happy with it regardless
Thanks for the Input. I'm getting him mounted flying so it won't matter how long it is. Thanks
Your guide and Hobbes told you the truth. I've killed several with beards 4 to 7 inches and all the hairs are different lengths. But they are Beautiful turkeys in Beautiful Country! I hope to hunt em again next year!