tom turkys

[Billsbirds]

i have a Bouron red tom turkey i taded for a couple of years ago how can i tell how old he is
his beard is about 5 inchs long ,spurs 1 1/2 inchs


can anyoe help

 

[R2elk]

i have a Bouron red tom turkey i taded for a couple of years ago how can i tell how old he is
his beard is about 5 inchs long ,spurs 1 1/2 inchs


can anyoe help

I have no idea how to age a mature turkey but I do know that you can't judge anything by the length of his beard.

I had a BR tom who was at least 11 years old when something came in and ate half of him one Thanksgiving night. He had his best and longest beard when he was three years old. After that length varied some years being shorter and other years it was longer. There was no pattern to the length of his beard after his third year.

His spurs got about as long as the one's on your tom by his third or fourth year and pretty much stayed at that length for the rest of his life.

 

[frank53061]

From what I have seen as far as beard lenghts and research I found that approx, 2 inches of beard per year of age.
It sounds from what you are telling me my guess of the age would be 2 1/2 to 3 years of age.
I do not know what correlation in spure lenght to age of the bird.
I hope I was of some help.