Turkey Day is almost upon us! We hope you all have a chance to relax and enjoy a warm meal with friends and family. We’re thankful for yet another wonderful year of helping folks with one their biggest and most meaningful purchases: their homes! Here are some fun facts about the star of the holiday you may not know!
- Every holiday season, CBHPW’s annual fundraiser, Turkeys For The Triangle, distributes over 2,000 turkeys to Triangle-area charitable organizations!
- In 2012, the average American ate 16 pounds of turkey.
- 88% of Americans surveyed by the National Turkey Federation eat turkey on Thanksgiving.
- 46 million turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving, 22 million on Christmas and 19 million turkeys on Easter.
- Since 1970, turkey production in the United States has increased nearly 110%.
- In 2013, 242 million turkeys are expected to be raised in the United States.
- The turkey industry employs 20,000 to 25,000 persons in the United States.
- Turkey hens are usually sold as whole birds. Toms are processed into turkey sausage, turkey franks, tenderloins, cutlets and deli meats.
- The average weight of a turkey purchased at Thanksgiving is 15 pounds.
- The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds, about the size of a large dog.
- A 15 pound turkey usually has about 70 percent white meat and 30 percent dark meat.
- The wild turkey is native to northern Mexico and the eastern United States.
- The male turkey is called a tom.
- The female turkey is called a hen.
- The turkey was domesticated in Mexico and brought to Europe in the 16th century.
- Tom turkeys have beards. That is comprised of black, hair-like feathers on their breast.
- Turkeys can see movement almost 100 yards away.
- Turkeys lived almost ten million years ago.
- Baby turkeys are called poults and are tan and brown.
- Turkey eggs are tan with brown specks and are larger than chicken eggs.
- It takes 75-80 pounds of feed to raise a 30 pound tom turkey.
- Male turkeys gobble. Hens do not. They make a clicking noise.
- The ballroom dance the “Turkey Trot”was named for the short, jerky steps that turkeys take.
- Turkeys do not really have ears like ours, but they have very good hearing.
- Turkeys can see in color.
- A large group of turkeys is called a flock.
- Commercially raised turkeys cannot fly.
- Wild turkeys spend the night in trees. They prefer oak trees.
- Wild turkeys can fly for short distances up to 55 mph and can run 20 mph.
- Turkey breeding has caused turkey breasts to grow so large that the turkeys fall over.
- Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented a live turkey and two dressed turkeys to the President. The President does not eat the live turkey. He “pardons”it and allows it to live out its days on a historical farm.
- The five most popular ways to serve leftover turkey are in a sandwich, stew, chili or soup, casseroles and as a burger.
- Turkeys will have 3,500 feathers at maturity.
- The costume that “Big Bird”wears on Sesame Street is rumored to be made of turkey feathers.
- The caruncle is a red-pink fleshy growth on the head and upper neck of the turkey.
- Turkeys have a long, red, fleshy growth called the snood from the base of the beak that hangs down over the beak.
- The bright red fleshy growth under a turkey’s throat is called a wattle.
- Turkey eggs hatch in 28 days.
- There are a number of towns in the United States named after the holiday’s traditional main course. Turkey, Texas, was the most populous in 2005, with 492 residents;followed by Turkey Creek, Louisiana (357);and Turkey, North Carolina (269).
