Domesticated turkeys were likely first separated from wild turkeys in the pre-Columbian era in Mexico. They were brought to Europe around , where they acquired their name. And then Europeans took the domestic turkey back to America in the s or s. So wild and domestic birds have been apart for a long time, and that's led to some differences. In the 20th century, turkey producers began seriously breeding commercial turkeys to become more efficient at converting feed into breast meat.
And today, the most popular turkey breed, the broad breasted white, grows super fast and can easily get to more than 45 pounds. By contrast, wild turkeys tend to top out at around 20 pounds or so. Commercial turkeys are so big that they generally can't get off the ground. But wild turkeys can fly at up to 55 miles per hour.
A delightful AP story by Sue Manning from looked at people who keep turkeys around for love and companionship — rather than for food. The animal-rescue organization Farm Sanctuary , in addition to keeping turkeys at its shelters, gives away about 50 birds a year for adoption.
Most have initially been on factory farms: "Many arrive as victims of neglect, cruelty or hoarding," writes Manning.
Pet owners said that the birds can have different personalities and are often nervous animals, but can also become protective of their owners. On the downside, because the turkeys are bred for butchering and not a long life of luxury, they can be prone to some health problems, including poor balance because of their large breast muscles. What's more, turkeys have to be kept outdoors because they're not exactly the holding-it-in-until-you-take-me-for-a-walk type.
Farm Sanctuary's current guide to having a pet turkey offers some interesting tidbits. It says that the commercial-breed turkeys live for about two to five years, are prone to heat exhaustion, and should not be kept in co-ed housing:.
The males of this breed are so excessively large that, when a male mounts a female, he may tear her skin down to the muscle Mounting can also damage the ligaments, neck, spine, and legs of the females, due both to the size of the males and commercial turkeys' predisposition to joint and leg problems.
The dominant males get to do most of the mating, but the other males have opportunities to reproduce as well. After mating, the females seek out a good nesting spot. Turkeys lay their eggs in ground nests. They choose nest areas that are covered by brush to help prevent detection by predators. The female turkey lays an egg each day in her nest for up to 11 days. The eggs take about 28 days to hatch. Called poults, baby turkeys spend their nights in the ground nest under their mother's watchful and attentive care for the first two weeks of their lives.
At two weeks of age, they fly up to tree branches at night with their mother, she offers them protection from predators. Unlike factory farm turkeys, who are unable to fly because of overgrowth from growth hormones, wild turkeys can and do fly.
Turkeys are very social animals. The poults spend their days playing with their siblings and with their mother. The mother guards the poults, plays with them and teaches them survival skills.
Poults stay with their mothers until the next breeding season. Rose Kivi has been a writer for more than 10 years.
But unlike un-fertilized chicken eggs in your fridge, the embryos in these eggs will begin to develop once the hen starts incubating them. And four weeks later the eggs hatch. Photo Rick Pilot.
Most birds, like songbirds and raptors, nest in trees. Turkeys and other ground nesters hatch-out with fuzzy feathers, open eyes and they soon can run. This is useful because turkey flocks often cover a lot of ground in a day while foraging, and the poults have to keep up with mother hen as she leads them thorough her territory in search of food and while avoiding predators.
Where are all the male turkeys during all of this? By late summer females with fully grown poults feed in open fields on crickets, grasshoppers, ticks and weed seeds.
In autumn during acorn and beechnut crop years, mixed flocks of males and females combine while feeding in forests as they fatten for the winter months.
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