Guest Author - Lisa Shea

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.

Turkey - Dumb Person or Bowling Strikes
Thanksgiving Turkey Project for Kids
Turkey Information
Photos of Wild Turkeys
Robo-Turkey Gets Revenge
Wild Turkeys Attack in North Dakota
Wild Turkey Presents and Gifts
The Turkey, Thanksgiving and Pilgrims