Thanksgiving Turkey Facts

I hope you have a very blessed and Happy Thanksgiving. As you sit around the table with family and friends today -- here are some turkey facts you can share.

Ben Franklin - in a letter to his daughter - proposed the turkey as the official United States bird.

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 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.??Wild turkeys can fly for short distances up to 55-miles per hour. Wild turkeys can run 20-miles per hour.??Turkeys' heads change colors when they become excited.??Most of the turkeys raised for commercial production are White Hollands.??It takes 75 to 80 pounds of feed to raise a 30-pound tom turkey.??A domesticated male turkey can reach a weight of 30-pounds within 18 weeks after hatching.

Male turkeys gobble. Hens do not. They make a clicking noise.??Forty-five-million turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving. Twenty-two-million turkeys are eaten each Christmas. Nineteen-million turkeys are eaten each Easter.??