Jake weight/beard/spur question.

Wow, that is a big difference in weights between the 2 jakes! Where I hunt in Nebraska the turkeys tend to scatter in the spring. During the summer and early fall the toms/jakes tend to congregate back together in small groups. I'm sure some of the jakes/toms in these groups come from different areas and potentially have different genetics....and possibly had different diets during the spring and early summer.

I wonder if turkeys are like humans? Some have genetics for small bodies and others for larger bodies? It may also be a difference in feed or time that each was hatched? Obviously poults that hatch earlier or live in areas with better feed have the potential of having larger bodies their first year in life. An untimely snowstorm or heavy rain event may make it tougher for poults hatched at that week in the spring to have a rougher time surviving than a week or 2 later....or visa-versa. There are so many different factors. I have a feeling you are seeing a little bit of everything that causes different size and weights.

 

In the area I hunt in Nebraska the rio/rio crosses migrate over a super large area between spring and winter. In fact they wander as far as 20 miles between seasons. It sounds like where you are they have a fairly small home range? In Nebraska and here in Colorado single hens start wandering away from flocks to nest starting the first or second week in April (depending upon the weather). Toms are still strutting and breeding hens into the first week in June. There is around a 2 month swath where they are nesting so I'm sure there would be a difference in size of poults the first year. I'm not sure if the turkeys would catch up in size by the 2nd season. I think a lot would depend upon their diets. If you live in the area and are in the field you might notice if there are differences in poult size during the summer and into the fall?

An 8 or 11 lb jake is mighty small! Almost all of the toms I shoot are in the 20 to 25 lb range. I'm sure the jakes are a chunk smaller but I don't think I've seen any jakes that are 8 to 11 lbs? The turkeys where I hunt in Nebraska have a diet of corn from early fall through the winter and early spring. It sounds like the diet for turkeys in your area may be limited? There is also a huge hierarchy with turkeys. Dominate hens, jakes, and toms likely have precedence over best eating spots. If food is limited you can imagine who gets the cream of the crop! Also, how tough are your winters? If there is deep snow and they are limited in diet that may be part of what you are seeing?

We have pure mountain merriams above my house in Colorado. They don't have any corn in their diets. The toms I harvest here are a chunk smaller in body size but they are still in the 18 to 21 lb range. I still don't think any of the jakes are 8 to 11 lbs. I almost wonder if there is a nutrition deficit or if something else is going on...possibly some sort of disease or something else that is affecting their health? It's always possible you have a strain of turkey genetics in your area that have super small bodies. Do you notice size difference in the hens as well? All of the jakes I see here in Colo are a chunk bigger in body size than all the hens. The small jakes you mentioned are pretty darn small!

 

If it had3/4” spurs it wasn’t a jake. Odds are it had beard rot that shortened its beard.

 

Well the tail would say jake better than spur size so he must have been a Super jake. Might have been a very early hatch with good genetics

 

It's got a lot to do with when there hatched, here at home are earliest will hatch 1st of June all the way to about mid to late july, studies have concluded that hens will try to renest up to 3 times before giving up for the year, each try pushes them significantly back, a lot of Jake and even Tom breeding groups are nest brothers, but a lot of groups are formed the previous fall when there mother pushes them out, so all different sized Jakes in a group are common, genetic surly play a roll but with all bird they all reach an average size, some on the high end some on the low,these Jake group move at the end of breeding season to ensure genetic divesity, that's my 2 cents! I'd say it's mostly hatch time I've killed born that year Jake's in the fall with beards bigger that a couple I've seen killed 6 months later in april, these are not super jakes, super Jake are 2nd fall gobblers around here usually 16 to 20 pounds 6 to 8 inch beards and 1/2 to 3/4 spurs, sizes are close to this in other states I hunt! Again these are my observation of witch ive logged thousands hope this helps!
God bless