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Bearded hens; are they hamaphrodytes?

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woodsman87

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Shot one saturday morning. Thought it was a gobbler, about a seven to eight inch beard, didn't measure it. I know you can tell the difference between gobblers and hens by the head and body color and size and so forth, but it was on a ridge above me and you couldn't tell much about the color of her I just saw beard and killed her.
Any ways, have any one ever heard of them being hamaphrodytes? I have heard from many people that they were, but when I field gutted her I couldn't find any nuts in her, I do not know what the ovarys look like, but I did find her egg polyps.
 
it's just a hen, a low percentage of hens have a beard. I have seen one a couple years ago behind my house but never one in the woods while hunting. I wouldn't think twice about killing one, I would love to kill a bearded hen.
 
I have seen a few over the years and never tried to shoot one. This was an accident. I don't like to shoot hens, but the old man that told me she was both sexes made me at least feel better about it. It was perfect timing for thanksgiving food though.
 
woodsman87 said:
I have seen a few over the years and never tried to shoot one. This was an accident. I don't like to shoot hens, but the old man that told me she was both sexes made me at least feel better about it. It was perfect timing for thanksgiving food though.
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I don't know how good your turkey population is, but if it's booming like it is around here in middle TN, your flock should be fine losing a couple hens. If they are capable of growing to such big populations then they should do fine losing some hens from their flock. And you are right about thanksgiving. I was psyched when I found out they changed the fall season to before T-day so I could get a turkey for the tradition...
 
There is a large turkey population, and I know that it want have much of an effect on it. But I enjoy turkey more than anything, and I want just gobs of gobblers. I have killed plenty of turkeys, so shooting a hen to me is meaningless. But I know she will be tender for thanksgiving.
 
woodsman87 said:
There is a large turkey population, and I know that it want have much of an effect on it. But I enjoy turkey more than anything, and I want just gobs of gobblers. I have killed plenty of turkeys, so shooting a hen to me is meaningless. But I know she will be tender for thanksgiving.
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yep there are 2 reasons I can see for killing hens. 1 is for food and 2 is for population control if they are a nuisance.
 
I've read a couple different sources that say around 10% are bearded. Some areas have more than others. I can't prove it, but I believe (and have heard people smarter than myself say) that bearded hens are genetically linked to multi-bearded gobblers. Certain farms I know of that regularly produce multi-bearded gobblers also seem to have a bearded hen or two running around every spring. But no, they're not hermaphrodites.
 

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