The wild version of this "gorgeous" bird needs a mix of trees and grasses. The trees provide the birds with some of their food, cover in which to escape predators during the day, and roost sites at night. They need the grassland for most of their food, both plant and animal. A hen usually lays 10 to 13 eggs . Sometimes two females will lay up to 26 in the same nest, which is a shallow scrape in the soil, thinly lined with plant material. Incubation is about 28 days. Straight after hatching, the chicks learn how to catch insects, which form almost their entire diet. A week old chick may snap up as many as 4,000 grasshoppers and other insects each day. As they get older they switch to more plant matter. Wild turkeys probably numbered tens of millions before European settlers and their guns reached America. Good eating! So are the domestic ones.
This picture was a gift from my daughter, Kay. Happy Thanksgiving!
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5 comments:
He's cute, but soon to be sitting in the middle of our kitchen tables - poor little guy... Oh but I love the smell of him wafting through my house on Thanksgiving...
Haven't decided what exactly we will be doing for Thanksgiving this year since my due date is the following week. Guess it depends on my energy level.
I do prefere the smell of a cooked one to the smell of a un cooked one!
I love it! Great picture and interesting facts - you know your turkey!
I think this might be a girl. A young one. Maybe it's not even a turkey!!!
One person's celebration (eating turkey for the holidays) is another person's great trial (the turkey's).
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