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Chasing 49 ™️

@chasing_49

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A Brand Celebrating the Wild Turkey| Proud Patron of the Wild Turkey | Member of the Tenth Legion | Dedicated to the Pursuit |

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Heya! I’m Gabby, one half of the duo behind The Bearded Hens!

If there’s one thing you should know about me - I will do anything I can to not work a 9-5! Oh and I also have a HUGE love for the outdoors, hunting, and anything with history behind it!

When I’m not chasing an antique store or digging through bins at a garage sale, you’ll find me running my two businesses - The Barking Banjo or Timber Tail Co. Spending time with my dogs or spending any time I can in the outdoors.

I’ve always had an appreciation for the “grandma” hobbies, but mostly thrifting. I adore the old, unusual things that make you seriously stop and wonder where they’ve been and who owned them before you.

Janet and I decided to turn our love for hunting, antiques, vintage decor, a serious shopping problem, and a good bargain into something we could share with all of you!

We’re here to have fun, probably talk WAY too much, share some laughs, and hopefully help you find something you didn’t know you needed.

Welcome to The Bearded Hens Co! We are so glad you’re here. 🪶

#thebeardedhens #whatnotseller @huntingantiques #vintagetreasures #WomanWhoHunt

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This Turkey Tuesday is about gobbling, which is an activity toms do all year long – including during fall. The other day, I was scrolling through cell camera images and saw a series that included several toms, and one image clearly showed a tom gobbling. That took me back decades to when I was deer hunting as a child and had a tom gobbling his head off most of the afternoon while I sat hoping (fruitlessly) to see a deer. So, what prompts a tom to gobble, sometimes quite a bit, during the fall? Well, ebbs and flows in testosterone result in some toms getting fired up enough in fall to start gobbling, particularly when around other toms. Unlike during spring when testosterone levels get high enough for toms to gobble daily, during fall you typically see one bird in a flock gobble whereas others do not. You’ll also see certain toms in a flock gobble at times but there may be no consistency to who gobbles and when. Regardless, gobbling around other toms in the same flock during fall is primarily a way to assert dominance and challenge other flock members. We think of spring as a time when toms focus on dominance, but the battles to establish dominance occur throughout fall and winter in the flocks we’re seeing. The take home is gobbling during the fall is a behavior that gets the ball rolling on seeing who will stand at the top of the dominance ladder come spring. Anyone been seeing or hearing toms gobble? Pic by @tommartineauimages #wildturkey #wildturkeys #fall #gobblegobble #gobble

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Look for us in Nashville this year at the @official_nwtf show, we will be one their featured outfitters! A huge thank you to the organization for including us, we are excited for our first of many NWTF Conventions!!!

#headhuntersoutfitting #turkeyhunting #colorado #grandjunction #fruita

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Antman

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This Turkey Tuesday is about the feathers on a wild turkey’s head. Although toms have little feathering on their head and neck, hens have pronounced feathers in these areas that have important functions. Wild turkeys, like many birds, have bristle and specialized filoplume feathers that provide protection, sensory functions, communication, and camouflage. These feathers around the eyes help block debris, and coupled with multiple eyelids, keep the eyes clear – and vision is critical to a hen’s survival. Filoplumes also act as sensors of sort, helping the bird detect movement, changes in air flow, and vibrations – corpuscles at the base of the feathers basically allow the bird to “feel” changes in the environment around the head. It’s also believed that wild turkeys recognize each other at least partially from the appearance of their head, so differences in feather patterns serve as a form of communication and individual recognition. Lastly, feathering on the head of a hen helps her blend into the environment which is particularly important when she’s incubating. The take home is the feathers on a hen’s head serve important functions that influence many aspects of her life. Pic by Dale Kauzlaric #wildturkey #wildturkeys #feather #turkey #feathers

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We are exactly half way to the opening day for the Colorado 2027 Spring Turkey season.....but who's counting!?!?!

#headhuntersoutfitting #turkeyhunting #colorado #nwtf #grandjunction

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This Turkey Tuesday is about agricultural crops. With fall right around the corner, fields of grain crops become increasingly important to wild turkeys throughout broad portions of their range. These grains provide an important source of forage starting in fall and lasting well into winter, whether it be standing crops ready for harvest or waste grain left on the ground after harvest. Agricultural grains such as corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat offer turkeys carbohydrates that serve as an energy source, and proteins that support molting and growth of juvenile birds still building muscle mass. These grains also provide a critical source of fats, and turkeys steadily build fat reserves throughout fall to help them withstand harsh winter weather conditions. In fact, research in agricultural landscapes has shown that waste grains dominate fall and winter diets and provide nearly all energy requirements for turkeys during winter. This reality is why the availability of grains has such an impact on wild turkey movements during fall and winter, as they key in on areas where they can efficiently consume high energy foods. As farming practices continue to evolve and technology allows increasingly efficient harvest of grains, it will likely become more challenging for turkeys living in agricultural landscapes, which places more importance on optimizing quality of other vegetative communities on the landscape. The take home is agricultural grains are important food sources for wild turkeys throughout much of their range, particularly as we transition into fall and winter. Pic by @darcydphotography #wildturkey #wildturkeys #turkeyhunting #agriculture #crop

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This Turkey Tuesday is about the benefits of occupying the high ground. Wild turkeys roost on elevated perches at night as a way to avoid predators, but the use of above-ground perches is not a behavior restricted to nighttime. For instance, perching above ground to preen allows the bird to focus entirely on self-maintenance rather than having to constantly scan for danger. Alternatively, when turkeys feel threatened or are uncertain about a potential nearby threat, they may fly up to perch where they have an expanded field of view. This strategy makes sense, because perching above ground allows the bird to see farther, and since the bird has already examined the potential for danger from ground-level, perching offers a much-improved understanding of what the playing field looks like on the ground. Ongoing research continues to show that many behaviors in wild turkeys vary dramatically from one individual to the next, and in my own experience, use of perches is one. I once radio-tracked a hen that would fly up to roost during the day on almost a daily basis, and rather than loafing on the ground during the day, she would roost as she would at night. I also once hunted a tom that folded the strategy of using perches into his routine, and it served him well based on my failures to get him within gun range. Each time we worked him towards us, he’d get within ~ 75 yards before flying up to perch above ground. From there, he’d walk around in the tree, scan the ground all around us, and even hop into adjacent trees to improve his field of view. He’d eventually pick us out and fly down in the opposite direction before leaving the area. The take home is the use of perches during the day is a strategy that offers wild turkeys ways to improve their perspective on potential dangers on the ground. Pic by Monte Loomis. #wildturkey #wildturkeys #turkey #turkeyhunting #perch

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Just a little taste. #7man

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Lt. Governor Turkey hunt @ltgovpinnell
Had the pleasure of working on this Beautiful Eastern turkey in a strut alert pose on a wooded rock scene 🦃#rorabackbirdworks #turkeytaxidermy #texastaxidermy #Oklahoma #easternturkeys

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This Turkey Tuesday is about avian pox, which is the most common disease affecting wild turkeys. Avian pox is caused by a strain of avipoxvirus and there are 2 forms of the disease that include a dry and wet form. The wet form affects the bird’s mucous membranes in the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal systems, but the dry form is what most of us see when we encounter birds suffering from avian pox. That is, infected birds with wart-like growths on the head, neck, and legs. In some cases, a bird may only have a few small lesions that heal and slough off in a few weeks, so the condition resolves itself. But in more severe cases, like the bird in this image, the lesions become large and cover much of the head, often interfering with vision and the bird’s ability to feed, and sometimes contributing to mortality. Avian pox is spread by mosquitoes and outbreaks are more common during hot months when mosquitoes are abundant. The virus is also highly transmissible, so when one bird becomes infected it’s likely other birds will as well – this is one reason why concentrating birds around feeders can be problematic, as the virus can be easily spread. The impact that avian pox has on wild turkeys at a population level is unclear and is difficult to determine precisely, although ongoing work shows that many dead birds who test positive for avian pox also test positive for other diseases. The take home is avian pox is a common disease affecting wild turkeys, but the severity of the infection varies considerably across individuals. Pic by Gregory Cowles. #wildturkey #wildturkeys #turkey #turkeyhunting #disease

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Glad to see it.

#Turkeys #WildTurkeys #Getoutdoors #OutdoorPhotography #Michigan

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