Fun Thanksgiving Turkey Facts
Are you preparing to eat turkey for Thanskgiving? So are millions of others! Here are some fun facts to share with your family during the celebration!
* A male turkey is a tom. A female is a hen. Babies are called poults.
* A hen lays around 115 eggs a month. The eggs are tan with brown specks. In the 28 days, out hatches the poult.
* A turkey has 157 bones and 3,500 feathers.
* The largest turkey on record was 86 pounds, the size of a large dog.
* Wild turkeys can glide for over a mile.
* Turkeys sleep in low branches of trees.
* Only the tom turkey gobbles. The hen makes clucking noises. A tom's gobble can be heard a mile away.
* A group of turkeys is called a flock.
* Turkeys have lived in North America for 10 million years.
* At the first harvest celebration with the pilgrims and Native Americans, "fowl" was eaten. While this might have been turkey, it's more likely to have been geese and ducks.
* At current Thanksgiving feasts, over 675 million pounds of turkey are consumed.
* Despite the bad press, it is NOT the turkey that makes you sleepy after a Thanksgiving feast. Tryptophan can only make you sleepy if taken on an empty stomach without protein - hardly the case on Thanksgiving! It's the carbohydrates in the potatoes and pumpkin pie people eat - neither of which are traditional from the original pilgrim's diet.
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