Since I am learning to be patient as my birdhouse awaits the spring flutter of wings, I thought we should spend some time researching our ever popular holiday bird. My family enjoys it for Thanksgiving and Christmas so here is some blog time for that ever fulfilling feathered friend!! Yes I know you are thinking- what is such a large bird doing on a birdhouse blog?- yep since my family consumes so much turkey we should give honor where honor is due =) 97% of Americans according to the National Turkey Federation eat turkey at Thanksgiving- enough said!!
Most of my fascinating turkey information came from Wikipedia and here is a fun turkey fact website
The domesticated turkey is a large poultry bird raised for food and it is the descendent of the wild turkey. Though similar in name turkeys have no relation to the country of Turkey and are native to North America.
The female is called a hen and the chick is a poult. In the US, the male is referred to as a tom. Most dom
esticated turkeys have white feathers, although brown turkeys are often seen in books and on TV and are raised by organic famers. The red fleshy part under the beak is known as a “wattle”.
After being introduced to Europe by the Spanish, many distinct turkey breeds were developed. (e.g. Spanish Black, Royal Palm). Turkey was one of the many game species hunted by early American colonists and is thought to have been served at the first Thanksgiving, although there is little evidence to support this claim.(Because we weren’t there) In the midwestern United States in the mid to late 1800s, domestic turkeys were actually herded across the range in a manner similar to herding cattle. (That would have been fun to see) Turkey was more of a luxury for most of the early 1900s but the price of turkey dropped dramatically when the farming of turkeys became more common in the late 1940’s
In the UK Bernard Matthews is a name synonymous with turkey production and is the largest single producer in the world. The dominant commercial breed is the White (also known as “White Holland”) which are large birds with lots of meat but too large to achieve natural fertilization.
Approximately 2-4 billion pounds of poultry feathers are produced every year by the the industry. Most of the feathers are usually ground up and used as filler for animal feed.(yum) To date, turkey feather fibers have also been blended with nylon and spun into yarn.
Due to modern breeding techniques there are a wide range of differences between wild turkeys and commercial farm animals. The commercial varieties have lost much of their natural ability to forage for food, fly, walk normally, and to escape predators.(not much like a turkey anymore) The hens are also artificially inseminated because the toms are large and can injure the hens. Hobbyists as well as organic farmers grow “heritage” breeds such as the Royal Palm or Narragansett. These heritage breeds do not grow as quickly as commercial breeds and are single-breasted which means mostly dark meat. Their meat has a stronger turkey taste and does not require flavor additives or brining. Heritage turkeys are disease resistant, strong flyers and foragers, and can mate naturally and raise their young successfully. The average lifespan for a turkey is 10 years (If it doesn’t make it to our table)
Male turkeys strut and demonstrate, usually in groups, to attract hens. They fan out their tail, puff up the feathers on their backs, and drag their primary flight feathers on the ground to produce a “scraping” sound. Part of the demonstration includes gobbling and producing a “puff” sound followed by a very low resonating “boing” that sounds like a rubber band in an echo chamber. The low resonating sound is low enough that it cannot be captured with traditional audio equipment. The hen in turn makes a “yelp” or call that attracts the males. Hens select their mate and crouch on the ground with neck extended to signal their willingness to mate. Hens continue to lay fertile eggs for three to four weeks from just one mating. However, when given the opportunity hens will mate every day. The average lifespan of a breeding tom is 64 weeks. Between the hen and the tom , the tom is the only one that “gobbles”.
The turkey is a smart bird and is quite sociable. The myth of turkeys being ”dumb” may have come from the turkey’s appearance rather than its behavior. Benjamin Franklin regarded the turkey as a noble bird and preferred it to the eagle as the proposed symbol for the new United States, describing it as a “Bird of Courage.”
Here are a few of the turkey breeds and their descriptions:
*The Broad-breasted White is the commercial turkey of choice for large scale industrial turkey farms, and consequently is the most consumed variety of the bird. The Broad-breasted Bronze is another commercially developed strain of table bird.
*The Standard Bronze looks much like the broad-breasted, except that it is single breasted, and can naturally breed.
*The Bourbon Red turkey is a smaller non-commercial breed with dark reddish feathers with white markings.
*Blue slate turkeys are a very rare breed with beautiful gray-blue feathers.
*The Black turkey (”Spanish Black”, “Norfolk Black”) has very dark plumage with a green sheen.
*Narrangasset is a popular heritage breed named after Narraganset Bay in New England.
*The striking Royal Palm turkey has been developed not as a commercial strain but for more ornamental purposes, though it is also bred by those interested in preserving heritage breeds.
