Turkey pics 3/26

[Buckmaster14]

Rainy days mean the turkeys come in to eat.

First pic 7:15 3 hens and a longbeard

Reinforcements called in for later that morning

This bird is not a jake, hes a really old bird with almost no beard!

 

[jclaws]

the tom with no beard looks like it had beard rot,the end of it is very brown.

 

[Buckmaster14]

yeah thats what i was thinking as well. A lot of birds in the area have it.

Any idea what causes it?

 

[wapsiguy]

I have heard or read that it is a lack of something in the diet.

I found this with a Google search

Disease -- Turkeys will occasionally get a melanin deficiency in their beard. Melanin is the pigment that makes the beard black and sometimes the melanin production is stopped during the growth of the beard and the beard gets a blonde or light colored streak across it. Usually the melanin production will pick back up and the rest of the beard will be black but the beard will always have that blonde streak through it. The light-colored portion of the beard is much more brittle and weaker than the black portions and the beards will often break off at that point or stop growing. Some turkeys suffering from this will have completely blonde beards.

 

[Buckmaster14]

Thanks!

I'm not sure where the birds roosted last night, i went and sat this morning and the only thing in the area was a lone hen???

ha this season is gonna be fun.

Of course then my feeder went off and i heard a gobble... haha

 

[Thinkin Rut]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: wapsiguy</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Disease -- Turkeys will occasionally get a melanin deficiency in their beard. Melanin is the pigment that makes the beard black and sometimes the melanin production is stopped during the growth of the beard and the beard gets a blonde or light colored streak across it. Usually the melanin production will pick back up and the rest of the beard will be black but the beard will always have that blonde streak through it. The light-colored portion of the beard is much more brittle and weaker than the black portions and the beards will often break off at that point or stop growing. Some turkeys suffering from this will have completely blonde beards. </div></div>

Interesting...that would be sweet to kill one with a ten inch blonde beard! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

 

[HUNTING BB]

neat pics!