This was discussed in an earlier thread on aging turkeys. The best way I've found to determine if a gobbler is 2 yrs old, or 3 or older is by looking at the end of the beard. A 2 yr will have a lot of amber tips in the beard, while an older gobbler will be black in the ends. Here are a couple of pics:



The first one weighed 19-12 and had 15/16 spurs. He certainly could have been 2 by those stats, but the black ends say he is at least 3.

The second one weighed 21-6 and had 5/8 spurs. His spurs left little doubt he was just 2, but the amber is very obvious. This is a good example of how weight tells you nothing about his age.

I hope this is of help to some as you age your gobbler. My hat is off to those who can spot those PBTs before shooting them. I gotta kill him to figure out his age.

Good job pcp, if you hold them up to the sunlight the amber really shows.

Thanks!!

I've been turkey hunting a long time and I've never heard of this. What causes the amber and what makes it change to black on older birds? Or does it just wear off?

Thanks for the info.

Looks like the second picture was getting in butt kick (or actually beard kicked)and parted like Sonny Bono by the first picture:)

I've heard the answer to that, but I have forgotten. A Jake will have the amber too. Maybe AU Coonhunter will chime in.

I talked with a guy from MO and he told me it didn't work with their turkeys due to beards freezing in cold weather. I've never examined an AL turkey where it didn't seem to work.

I think the theory would be similar to new growth, or in this case, fast growing beard shows tips of amber as newer growth. That's why it's an indicator of a 2 year old, cause his beard just grew more rapidly than it ever will again (between his jake year and age 2). Then the new growth levels off, the tips wear off, the amber mostly goes away.

Beards grow about 5" per year, doesn't matter about age.. For whatever reason, as the beard first grows out of the sheath as a jake there isn't as much melanin put into it. My theory is that it is more useful in feather production at that point. The lack of melanin causes the amber tint, and as more melanin is added to beard growth as the turkey gets older it turns the nice shiny black color. Since they grow 5ish" a year, a 2 year old will still have some amber left in his tips.

Good post PCP. I've heard that the amber tips simply break off as the beard continues to grow and get longer. I can believe the bit about it not working in northern climates. The first Merriam I shot in South Dakota had a beard about the length of a jake beard of an Alabama bird. The morning after I shot that bird in the Black Hills, we got about 6 inches of snow. I imagine lots of northern birds have short beards due to dragging them through the snow.

I've found that to be absolutely true.

I thought they all had orange tipped beards!

Guess I only kill 2 year olds! Lol!

I would like to hear your thoughts on the bird I killed this morning. He has the amber tips like shown in the early pic but about half way up ( or down depending on how you look at it ) his beard the is a amber band about a half inch wide. So what does that tell you about his age? He had a 10 1/8" in beard and weighed 21.5#.

The amber stripe in the middle is "beard rot". It is a melanin deficiency that causes that section to not have melanin. It is more brittle and usually breaks off, leaving the small stub of a beard. You occasionally see them like you described that did not break off.

Pcp I'm with you got to kill em to figure there age!
cool info

I thought it might be a melanin deficiency that caused the middle stripe. But do you think that could have also caused the amber in the tips of his beard or do you think that the
amber tips means he is a two year old?

2 yr old more than likely. What kind of spurs did he have?

I've killed several with beard rot, but I've only killed one like you just described. That's a rare bird; be proud of him.

Here is a pic I just made of mine; tag says I killed him in 2003.

Mine was not as defined as the one you killed.
He had 1 3/8" spurs.

I think you can rule out him being a 2 yr old if he had spurs like that. It's interesting that he was an older turkey and the beard never did break at the stripe. The turkeys I've killed with beard rot were all 2 yr olds, but I've seen some posted here that were older. I've wondered if the beard will ever grow again if the beard breaks off from beard rot. Maybe AU Coonhunter will check back in. Looks like our other biologists have deserted us.

He was definitely not 2 with 1 3/8" spurs. I don't remember reading anything about them growing back, but they grow from the root so they should grow back normally over time as long as sufficient melanin is supplied back.

Congrats on a great bird.

This is interesting but I'm trying to figure out why I should care how old a turkey is.

Thanks for the information. I will keep it in mind when I kill the next one.

Same principle as aging a deer. Usually the older they are they are harder to kill and have bigger spurs.

I agree that it doesn't really matter - a longbeard is a longbeard. It's all about the quality of the hunt he provides.

So why try to age one? Because we can, I guess. I like to learn all I can about my opponent. It's also kinda fun to look at a turkey someone had killed after "hunting him for 3 years" and seeing that it's a 2 yr old bird.

What stumps me out of all of this amber talk is a bird with 1 1/8" - 1 1/4" spurs with amber in its beard. It just doesn't add up to everything I've learned about birds over the years on aging.

Yekrut, I've never seen a bird with spurs over an inch that had amber. You saying you have?

It would blow a hole in the idea if you do.

Preacher I've killed several with 1"+ sharp spurs that had amber in its beard. Turkeys that anybody would say were 3+ yrs old. I'm just not convinced the amber beard theory is right all the time.

2 in the last week, coonhunter killed one in tx and another member here killed one as well. Both 1 1/8"+

I'm not trying to be a smart aleck here - that's a term my Grandma used because she was too polite to use the other version.
I've learned there really aren't any rules for turkeys that don't have exceptions. I don't think a few amber hairs proves he his just 2, but I do think they will be hard to find in a turkey over 2. I wouldn't be surprised to find there are exceptions, but the rule works for every one of these.



How about somebody post some pics of a gobbler with long spurs and amber in his beard? Please try to take it in bright sunlight. It would also help if you could put one beside it that is all black on the end so we can compare them.

I don't know how scientific the theory is, but it was taught to me by a biologist. We all know those guys can be wrong. . And obviously, I can too. Still, I think the amber method of aging turkeys is more accurate than the tooth method of aging deer. We've all seen how some of the most prominent deer biologists in the state can't agree on that. So y'all post some pics and let's see how we do.

I will this afternoon pcp from the one I killed in Texas.

How about posting some easy ones too? If there is any interest in it, I can post some that are filled with amber and obviously 2, and some others with pretty much none that are obviously older. But even an older turkey can have a few amber ends; I think you have to look at a good many and get some experience for it to work.

Has the ever been a scientific study that tried to determine a certain % of amber tips to definitely age one?

I think it is discussed in a Lovett Williams book.

Only articles I have read, just state that amber ends indicate a 2 year old. The bird I killed in Texas threw me for a loop when I looked at it after I got home, had 1 1/8 and 1 3/16" spurs. All the 2 year olds I have seen have been pretty much all amber in the tips. My guess is 3 yr+ birds may have a few streaks if they have some melanin deficiency.

Left is a 2 yr old, middle is 3+, right is the texas bird

I killed one that has a little amber in his beard. he was 19lbs 2oz, 10 1/2" beard, 1 1/8" & 1 1/4" spurs.

just checked another one and it has a little amber on the tips as well. He was 19lbs 15oz, 11 1/4" beard and both spurs were 1 1/4".

Well, there are my 2 examples from this year

Thanks for the pics. The TX bird has a lot more amber than any I've seen that was obviously older. I took a sure-fire light and looked at some of mine carefully. Some of the obvious older ones have a few amber ends, but they don't compare with the obvious 2 yr olds like the one above. Out of all the ones I got on that string there is only one that I feel is questionable. I would post the pic but I am almost to my GA turkey camp. The season continues.

I've had some quality hunts trying to get a lone jake to come in....

And I would have killed him if he'd not been so tough...

And I've killed jakes that I was very thankful for. I once passed on 3 gift jakes the last day of the season out of state while carrying a particular gun (Rem 1100 .410), and then went 0-9 on hunts with that gun (while I was about 50% with other guns during the same time frame) till I finally consulted with the jinx breaking experts here, followed that sage advice, and then broke the jinx with that gun when 3 jakes came in the next trip out. I wasn't about to exacerbate the jinx by letting 3 jakes walk again.

Then I sold it to make sure the jinx was gone forever.

Very interesting On the Texas gobblers, I have one mounted that had 1.5" spurs, 10" beard and still has some amber in his beard...

It may be a nutrition thing out west that leads to not enough melanin.

Just thinking out loud, but could it be from a bird that once had beard rot and it's grown back? I know that may not always be the case on every one, but is that possible for some? Maybe the bird that had beard rot early in its life?

Not YEKRUT, but I have this bird mounted and he has amber on tips.


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