Beard Growth

[NCL]

With all the discussion that has gone on about beards in various thread it got me wondering how much a beard grows in a year. It would seem that if a two year old had a 6 to 7 inch beard that would be the growth rate in a year, but then would mean a longer beard would be older. Since about a 11 or 12 inch beard seemed to be about the maximum length does the beard quit growing after a certain age?  I am sure there are various factors such as genetics and food availability that play a big part. If all things are equal what is the growth rate of a gobblers beard in a year? Do beards quit growing in length after a certain age?

[Happy]

No sir. It just keeps getting broken off and worn down as the turkey moves around and lives its life

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[PNWturkey]

if a two year old had a 6 to 7 inch beard that would be the growth rate in a year

I have shot well-fed 2-year old gobblers in Iowa/Kansas that had monster beards!

Conversely, one of my Oregon mountain turkeys this year had huge, sharp spurs (so I'm assuming 3+ years) but a spindly 9" beard.

Beard length/thickness might be as much a factor of nutrition as it is of age...

[Turkeyman]

Back in the day when I used to kill jakes I got several with beards 6" to 6.5" in NY or PA. Now...if you interpolated that to a greater age, they would have had beards 18" or so as three year olds!!  No way, of course. Several factors govern beard length...genetics, environmental conditions, weather, latitude (e.g. 100 miles north of 40th parallel as opposed to 100 miles south of 40th parallel...think snow and ice breaking them off.

[MK M GOBL]

Beards (Modified Feathers) on a wild turkey grow 4"-5" a year with some other factors affecting this. They wear down as the grow, terrain can cause a lot of wear and those northern states winters. A "tall" bird will have a longer beard on average, but some beards are stronger and then tend to "bend" under the bird and wear from side and not bottom. This is how you get such long beards in those record birds, as they wear the other feathers lay on these and then receive less "wear" and so on.

As with most genetics, diet, and environmental factors all play into this, and just like spurs no real way to age as an adult, past 2 they lose the "red" ends and are all black from there on out, unless mites, beard rot, and some diet can affect the coloration.

My "weird beard" from the U.P. shows some of this.


MK M GOBL

[Yoder409]

The birds I've been hunting in west-central PA for 40-some years NET about 4" - 5 1/4" of beard growth through their first two years.

I've shot (what I estimate to be) 2 year old birds with beards never shorter than 8" and never longer than 10 1/2"

[NCL]

The birds I've been hunting in west-central PA for 40-some years NET about 4" - 5 1/4" of beard growth through their first two years.

I've shot (what I estimate to be) 2 year old birds with beards never shorter than 8" and never longer than 10 1/2"

Yoder

Thank you. This is kind of my thoughts but thought I would ask the question anyway.

[saltysenior]

It won't be long someone will market a product that will supposedly make beards and spurs grow bigger.     just put in feeders like they do to make great big racks on deer........and folks will buy it...

[AU coonhunter]

Roughly 5" per year. Jake beards have lots of amber color in them, I assume due to them using lots of their melanin in feather replacement instead of beard growth. 2 year olds will have some amber color in the tips of theirs, but older than that the amber color is mostly worn off. Bird height, habitat, genetics and ice/snow all play factors to beard length and thickness, but that is why a gobbler averages a 9-11" beard with exceptionsto either side.

[Big Jeremy]

If I let it go for a full year I'd probably get about 6" of growth on my beard. I don't like it getting that long, though.


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[hotspur]

The best rio grande boss gobbler I've taken had an thick 8 inch beard, longest rio beards I have taken had  9 inch beards, the  best eastern boss gobbler I've taken had a 12 inch beard