I have noticed in the last few years I don't have many mature toms. Seem to have a pretty good population of jakes. The jakes now have ~2-to-4-inch beards. How long of time will it take those birds come into maturity with an 8-to-9-inch beard?

The reason I ask is if to many mature toms are harvested, will the flock stay health populated with all the young jakes?

Jakes are one year old birds this spring. A year from now, next spring, as two yr old birds, they will have 9” beards (roughly). The fact that you have a lot of jakes is good - that means there was a good hatch last spring. This year may be a little low on 2 and 3 yr old birds - but with all those jakes you are seeing - a year from now should be a good year

A two year old bird in our area can have a beard up to 10” or longer. The spurs are what can tell the tail of how old a bird is.

2 yr old Tom’s do a lot of the breeding in our area and can be fairly easy to kill due to lack of experience and agressive.

A bird 4 years old or more is rare and s trophy. These will respond to call but not come into them in my experience. They expect the hens to come to them.

Usually 2 year old beards are 7 inches and up but there are variables that dictate how long they are.iam not sure if genetics play a role in it or not. I think the majority of the birds shot in most states are 2 year Olds or Jake's. Normally the 2 year Olds do alot of gobbling and the older birds tend to be less vocal.but there are exceptions.

For our Black hills birds typically a 2 year old will have a 7-8 inch beard.

Tom's are mature at two years. Eastern turkeys will have longer beards than Merriam turkeys , yours are probably Merriam.

So, these bird I'm seeing have short beards. Will their beards grow to 7 plus inches by spring turkey season this spring? These pictures are from last week or so.

Looks like you could sell some hunts with that many birds. Guys are always looking to find a few Merriam birds to get their slams.

Any turkey experts ever send in a tooth for aging?

Hard to see in pictures but always seem to have younger birds. I usually have enough people ask to hunt and offer to some other also. No charge but my concern is mature birds and not over hunting it.

If you need help thinning the flock...let me know! LOL

So I noticed when I hunted Wyoming Merriams in the Recluse area, they were mature birds (meaning 2+ years old), but they had shorter beards compared to the easterns I am used to. I just looked at the pics and our measurements... the beards averaged 6". I attribute that to beard rot or frostbite. Our of 6 birds... we also had several that had only 1 spur, and even then it wasn't more than a nub. Generally I look at tail feathers if the beard is questionable. If they have a full fan, that's how I can tell. I have shot what I call a super jake... which was likely an early hatch and had all his big bird tail feathers (that's not a technical term), but like the two on the bottom right and left.

Also, most of the eastern jakes I see... you can barely see or just see their beards.

Our Black Hills birds have more of a pencil thick beard compared to the Eastern paint brush thicker beards.

Seems like a humble brag to me there Snowy. Lots of Jake turkeys isn’t a bad thing.

As long as you have a mess of hens also! Your population should be good as long as you don’t see a large reduction in hens. Keep good habitat for them and let it go!

If you want more mature toms. Kill a few of the jakes and what is left will be mature in a year or two. The young males are better eating anyway I’ve heard.

The key will be ground nesting predator management. I surely hope you are trapping the area. I’d offer to help but a 24 hour check is a bit of a ride for me.

But I will travel to kill a turkey so, let me know!

Those short beards are less than a year old. They have to be two to start seeing much growth. The turkeys here get in big flocks in the winter, I would guess it is the same there. I have see over 100 in a flock in the winter, maybe 200.

In the first picture there a couple of adult toms strutting notice the full even fans. In the last picture the are several jakes strutting as the center feathers in the fans are longer and the fan isn't even. Based on that you have a lot of jakes but may have more adults than you thing just with short beards for what ever reason. When I hunted in Montana you couldn't go by spur length to judge age as the wear the off and break them on rocks. Just my experience.

I'd Say

[quote=DelawareRob]Seems like a humble brag to me there Snowy. Lots of Jake turkeys isn’t a bad thing.

No, that isn't it at all but you can think what you want.
I found what I was looking for with MJM saying that it would take another year for those jakes to be a mature full fanned Toms. My concern was to many jakes and not enough mature Toms but it sounds like not to worry about it.

I noticed some smaller red looking ones in the flock in the second picture. Yes the Jake’s will have the full rounded tail and longer beards next year. Looks like you have a healthy flock of birds there.

Keep them fed and watered and you will have more than you will want in the future. Here water has a big impact on our birds very wet springs or very dry weather for the chicks makes a difference.

They are a very ritual creature they make their rounds and feed as they travel along. Yes, a wet spring is the perfect scenario for pheasant, turkey and upland game hatch success.

Year around water with cricks and river that are here.