Question !!! I have a piece of property ive been hunting for several years and know the birds really well. Last t year we had a gobler with a limp on his right side and had about 10 in full beard. Never shot him due to only wanting to take two birds off piece and took two others. This year same bird with same limp roostinf same place or close and NO BEARD at all. Gobbles great , struts great and breads hens. I called him to within 20 yds and saw big spurs but no beard at all not even any straggly hairs at all. Any ideas or anyone else experienced this? thanks in advance for info...
Don't know the reason he doesn't have a beard got pulled off fighting? But I have seen a few mature gobblers with no beards some had a scar where one was and have seen a couple that there was no sign of ever having a beard. One of those freak things I guess.
Neal
I know beards can brake off if there is a real bad winter and the turkeys suffer nutritionally.
I shot a mature gobbler with a beard that was only 2'' long and all discolored on the tips of the hairs. I was told it was "beard rot". It could be that your gobbler had beard rot.
thanks guys...
It either beard rot or it got frozen during an ice storm and broke off. Most likely beard rot though....I killed one earlier with beard rot... you can tell it the tips of his beard are brown.
Could be beard mites. This bird was three or four years old but had very little beard. But there were a lot of mites around his beard.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/olesixbeards/Beardrot.jpg)