Turkey down/Spur Question

[NCL]

The Tom I killed last year did not even have a bump. My buddy killed one with an 11 inch beard in the same spot two days later and it also did not have any spurs.

[fallhnt]

Congratulations

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[GobbleNut]

Thanks for the pictures.  Looks like you shot a bearded hen, at least a he/she.

It's a weird one for sure.  Head looks somewhat gobblerish, and it's got a gobbler-looking beard.  ...but the feathers say hen. 

[Spitten and drummen]

True that some toms are spurless. I have seen one. I have seen a handful of bearded hens. I would say I am 90% certain that is a bearded hen. Congrats on the bird.

[appalachianassassin]

I've killed 2 completely spotless gobblers and know of 2 others.

[turkey_slayer]

I've killed 2 completely spotless gobblers and know of 2 others.

You kill em in a carwash?

[Spitten and drummen]

I've killed 2 completely spotless gobblers and know of 2 others.

You kill em in a carwash?

.

[uk.turkey.hunter]

I've killed 2 completely spotless gobblers and know of 2 others.

You kill em in a carwash?

.

At least they were practicing good hygiene. lmao

[turkey_slayer]

Only second bird I've killed in this area. Both were spurless

[dublelung]

Spurless gobblers aren't that rare. I know of several killed in several states that have slight bumps or nothing at all to resemble a spur. It sucks, but it happens. However, I believe the one posted is a freak hen.

[turkey_slayer]

Def not rare. I've killed 3 and know of several others. The original bird I believe has male and female genetics. Gobbler head, hen plumage

[Treerooster]

You certainly have an interesting bird uk.tutrkey. I would say bearded hen, but there are other interesting things about your bird.

The 2 different colored areas on the beard are from a lack of melanin. Since there are 2 distinct discolored areas there werre 2 periods of stress on the bird. A lack of melanin suggests the turkey was stressed when that portion of the beard was growing. The stress could come from severe weather or disease.

The large (for a hen) caruncles don't seem quite normal (for a gobbler) and I am wondering if it isn't from disease, which would correlate with the beard stress. I know some diseases will make the caruncles on the head swell, but I am not very knowledgeable on turkey disease and how the different diseases might affect a turkey.

Some FWIW's...

Melanin is in feathers too, a beard is a form of a feather. If a birds feathers are growing during a period of melanin deficiency there will be light colored areas in the feathers also. If the lack of melanin is severe enough the feathers/beard can break off.

There was a mention of the tips of the primaries not being worn down from strutting signifying it was a hen. This is not always true. Some hens will have their primary tips worn like a gobblers. Hens will strut or posture for dominance and wear the tips off. Especially the more aggressive hens.

No spurs on a gobbler can be very rare or just a little rare, as can bearded hens or multiple bearded birds. That is genetic and can be more common in one area and extremely rare in another.

[THattaway]

Congrats to you. Not commenting at all on what or why you shot it. In SC it's illegal to shoot a bearded hen. Hasn't always been but has been for a good many years now. I can see where a situation with that head poking up and a glimpse of that beard could easily cause that bird to get shot. If it were me and here I'd surely claim entrapment lol.

Bearded hens are fairly common here locally but a big fleshy head with tom sized caruncles on them sure ain't. I've seen the reverse though, a bearded hen with gobbler plumage, shiney black tipped breast feathers but a fuzzy hen head and body size. No idea if there were spurs on her but saw her for a couple years numerous times. Have also killed a full fanned 9" bearded tom with no spurs. This year I called in a tom for a fella that was completely missing one back toe as if there never was one there. Same bird had odd symmetrical creased lines all throughout it's breast feathers. Have also killed a erythristic tom with solid black primaries a few years back. The point is, odd ball turkeys are out there. Just another thing that makes them so interesting.