I was very surprised to see the low weight on my bird from this past week. I know our Osceolas are generally pretty light compared to the other sub species, but my bird sported a 9.5" beard and only weighed 15lbs. My buddy's bird had a 10.5" paintbrush of a beard, and weighed in at only 14lbs.
What I did notice was that when cleaning the birds, there was virtually zero fat on them. The birds I've cleaned or seen cleaned in the past, have had a good deal of fat at least around the breasts. Could this be due to their diet or what?
Imo both. I am anticipating low weights this spring in PA. Not only did we have a harsh winter--we also had a fair at best mast crop in the fall. Farmlands maybe different.
Imagine what your birds would weigh in a few weeks with all the strutting going on.
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Gobblers in the spring are a lot like bucks in the rut. They pay a whole lot more attention to the ladies than they do to food. Also, S. FLA birds tend to weigh in lighter than the central FLA birds we're used to hunting.
I was wondering about the fact that it came from S. Florida. Also, I'm wondering if the grasshopper "lubber locust" hatch has been delayed with all of our cold weather forcing them to miss out on all that fatty goodness. Hopefully I'll have a good ole central bird to compare it to. Although I won't be all that far north of the line.