Royal palms all have beards

[elieugene6]

Okay so I have a little problem all of my royal palms have beards. I have one I'm fairly certain is a Tom, he has the black across his Chest. Out of the other four I know at least one of them is a female because she's the mommy. The mommy did not have a beard last year or at least I didn't know she did so how do I tell the difference? Is it possible that I have four Hens. I got rid of my old tom because I was fairly certain I had at least one tom out of the babies. My old Tom was nasty. Do all royal palm males have the black stripes across their chest and all of the females without the black stripes?

 

[Lagerdogger]

Females sometimes get beards. The toms breast feathers should have black edges that get increasingly thick as you move towards the belly. Female breast feathers should be all white.

 

[Narragansett]

Quote:
Not correct. According to the Standard, the hens should also have the black lacing. It's just less pronounced, but the more it has, the better quality the specimen.

 

[Celie]

I am not familiar with RP but I do have quite a few Hollands and some have beards and some do not, but they are not as long as the Toms. I don't think the beard is a good tell with turkeys, also size differs with the individual, I was told from someone that his largest turkey turned out to be a hen. The earliest way I can make the determination is the feathering up the turkey's neck, if it is there, it's a hen. F there is no feathering, that starts like a thin stripe at about 3 or 4 months, it's a tom!
Could you post some pics? From angles would be nice, and we might be of more help!

 

[LoneStarHen]

I've got two RP hens and two toms. The hens have markings very similar to the toms with the lacing. I do have one hen who has a very small beard. I didn't realize they could have beards, but I did read that it can happen.

 

[casportpony]

Both of my BBW hen have beards, but my RP's and my Eastern Wild do not.

 

[elieugene6]

Ill try and get some pics today. They are around 7-8 months old. I haven't seem anyone displaying.

 

[TV]

The RP hens may have some black lacing on the breast but it won't be nearly as pronounced as it is on the tom and the very tip of the breast feathers will be a lighter shade or white where as the black on the tom breast feathers will be all of the way to the very tip. Beards on hens is not all that uncommon. I have a domestic wild type hen with a beard and spurs and every hen poult she has hatched has developed a beard.

 

[Celie]

Both of my BBW hen have beards, but my RP's and my Eastern Wild do not.

I have never seen any BBW either hen nor tom, without a beard. It seems to be norm for that breed.

Ill try and get some pics today. They are around 7-8 months old. I haven't seem anyone displaying.

At 7-8 months, your toms should be displaying! Maybe they are all hens?

The RP hens may have some black lacing on the breast but it won't be nearly as pronounced as it is on the tom and the very tip of the breast feathers will be a lighter shade or white where as the black on the tom breast feathers will be all of the way to the very tip. Beards on hens is not all that uncommon. I have a domestic wild type hen with a beard and spurs and every hen poult she has hatched has developed a beard.

I did not know hens could have Spurs? I guess I learned something new today!

 

[casportpony]

I have never seen any BBW either hen nor tom, without a beard. It seems to be norm for that breed.
At 7-8 months, your toms should be displaying! Maybe they are all hens?
I did not know hens could have Spurs? I guess I learned something new today!

Some of my chicken hens have *huge* spurs!