bearded hens and would you shoot?

Bearded hen gets a pass everytime. For me its not about filling a freezer, its about getting outside in nature and being able to see some neat stuff that people pass by every day without knowing about. Turkey hunting for me is about the quintessential gobbler with a beard, spurs and a big fan.....the meat is great too. I take the beard, spurs and tail and save them. I love looking at them and remembering the hunt. I feel they are memories not trophies. The hens don't have that feeling for me. Hunting for me is about the whole experience, not just eating.....

No I would pass.......sure it is legal but IMHO I would pass.

For my first Turkey? No doubt any beard is going down. After that, well see. Probably similar to my deer season rules. Early season bucks only but later season, if it's legal it's down. I'd rather use my tag than have it sit.

i passed on a bearded hen on opening day. My rule has always been i will kill one, and see how i feel after and decide whether i would again, but i likely would leave it at that. on opener, it came in and mozied around my decoys for an hour or so, and I thought about it, i even started up a thread on facebook to get some opinions (it was overwhelmingly yes, and the bird hung out while i posted and checked this thread lol), but i ended up passing since it was opening day. Now that i have hunted a few more times and havent sealed the deal, I do regret that decision a little bit.
the amount of hens that get killed in the spring has very little impact on the population, for me its just that i dont want to clean a bird with eggs.

I would eat the tag soup first. I have had quite a few in over the years. At one farm I used to hunt until it sold I would see at least one every year. I was never tempted to pop her. The guy who taught my turkey course back in the day showed us pics of the number of eggs in one his friend shot. There were more than I thought possible. Plus, as noted by others, there is significantly less meat. So like you, the guilt would be more than any satisfaction being a successful hunter would bring.

If faced with tag soup, yes I would!

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I shot one my first year turkey hunting, on the last day of the season. I had no problems with it, tasted the same as any other turkey I have shot. I now only hunt 4 or 5 times a year, so maybe I will shot another, if given the choice I will shoot the tom beside the hen. I also think getting the linage out of the pool is good. I have to agree with fox on the deer thing. I will not pass on a doe in later season as long as I'm legal, and you have to figure it has been bred. Again if the 2 are standing beside each other I will take the buck. I have let does go because she had a couple fawns with her, just didn't feel right, same would happen if hen had little ones with her. Saw a pure white turkey couple weeks ago, not hunting at the time. Never got close enough to see if it had a beard or not, but if I had a gun and it had a beard, I would have shot it.

one interesting thing i found out, but haven't yet confirmed. a guy on a facebook group was trying to tell me that bearded hens are the mothers of multi bearded toms. he says his hunting buddy is a biologist and he told them that (i asked for sources, he didnt have any), i have only found other forum postings about this, and no scientific writings.

has anyone heard this before?

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Originally Posted by bowj

has anyone heard this before?

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Might be some truth to it....I read once that the Bearded Lady from the RB circus gave birth to a hermaphrodite...LOL ...

I didn't hunt Turkey this Spring didn't have time. But if I had been and if I saw a bearded hen ... yes I would shoot it. When I hunt I do hunt for meat. Now if Turkey's were not plentiful like they are around here than I wouldn't.