Well, I guess that’s what they’re called?  A young, 1 year old turkey gobbler is called a jake, but what is a female bearded hen called, your guess is as good as mine, so I’ll call her a jakette!

This past week we had 2 hen turkeys dining on grasshoppers in the field behind our house and one of them was growing a beard.  Once she matures she’ll officially be called a bearded hen.  Being a user of Bing, I Binged Rio Grande bearded hen turkeys and came up with some facts.  About 15% of all turkey hens have visible beards and as the birds get older beards get more pronounced and bearded hens are just as protective of their young as the non bearded type.

These 2 birds, most likely, have been bred and are stocking up on grasshoppers, were covered up with them, so they can eat all they want!  They’ll lay their eggs shortly and we’ll have 9 or 10 poults running with their mother.  Last year one hen turkey had 14 poults, who knows how many eggs she laid, that I got a “shot” of at the water trough, see my post “[A Multiplier]” of October 1, 2012.  These poults were old enough to roost in trees and they flew within 2 weeks of hatching.

Luckily the camera was in easy reach and I took these 2 pics of the jakette or bearded hen.
    

Showing these pics to my Sunday school class, they laughingly told me to send both of them over to their places so they could eat their grasshoppers too!