 The turkey is often thought of fondly around the time that we prepare for Thanksgiving. It is an interesting bird with a history all its own. Let's start with some basic terminology so that you can learn to talk turkey. An adult male turkey is called a tom. An adult female turkey is called a hen. Baby turkeys are not called chicks because this is a name reserved for chickens and wild birds. Instead we call them polts. So if you want to talk turkey then let's get the lay of the land by going over the parts of a turkey. The red lumps and bumps on the head of a turkey are called karunkles. But they can change color based on the mood of the turkey so that they're more of a blue color. The long, fleshy part of the skin that hangs above the nose is called a snood. And it can be lengthened and shortened by the turkey at will. Here are the eyes, nose, and ear. This is the turkey's breast feathers. Turkey wings are very strong and can strike a mighty blow when turkeys are fully grown. The wing feathers closest to the body are called secondary feathers while the ones at the tip of the wing are called primary feathers. The feet and legs are beneath the bird and hold up their great weight. You will find four toes on each foot, three facing forward and one facing backwards. The tail feathers are impressive in turkey toms that have them all fanned out and on display. And lastly, the back feathers round out our tour of a turkey. All wild turkeys are in the genus and species called meleagris gallopavo. There are a total of six subspecies and they are the eastern, oceola, rio grand, mariums, ghouls, and the oscillated turkey. The eastern wild turkey is the most widespread. The oscillated turkey, found on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, looks very different from the turkey that so many of us recognize. Instead, this subspecies is almost covered in iridescent feathers and has yellow coroncles on its head and face. The turkey has not been domesticated nearly as long as the chicken which has been domesticated for over 10,000 years. The eastern wild turkey was hunted by Native Americans, but only on occasion were they captured. When captured, they were kept in small cages and only for a short period of time. When Christopher Columbus came to the Americas, he brought back several captured turkeys to Europe. Since Columbus sailed for the country of Spain, then of course that is where he took his discoveries, including the turkey. The turkeys brought back to Europe underwent the first attempts at their domestication. They were very, very popular at the time. Poultry breeding of all kinds was extremely popular. Turkeys were bred and domesticated first in Spain, but then the birds traveled to England where their popularity continued. Most turkeys were bred and selected for different traits, such as feather color or body size. The turkey returned to North America with the settlers who came to New England. These settlers began to crossbreed the turkeys they brought with them from Europe with the eastern wild turkey. This mainly took place around Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Two breeds that you find in the American Poultry Association that we have today came out of these crossbreeding efforts, the bronze and the narrowgan set. Both of these breeds are the ones often depicted in our drawings of our Thanksgiving turkey. The bronze turkey was the largest of the breeds developed by the people who colonized the Americas. It grew to a large size and had a large breast muscle that provided plenty of meat for everyone at the table. The bronze turkey is the foundation of the modern turkey industry. However, because dark pin feathers in the skin of a dark feathered bird makes the turkey carcass appear off-colored, the average consumer prefers a turkey that has white feathers. White pin feathers are not as noticeable and is preferred by the average American customer. Luckily, the bronze turkey sometimes mutated its genetics and gave us a white feathered turkey. This mutation was picked up and used by the modern turkey industry and they continued breeding white turkeys. The white strain of turkey that the commercial turkey industry uses today is called the broad-breasted white. Now that you know which breed makes its way to the table in the form of delicious turkey, let's talk about how it got there. The turkey industry is a vertically integrated industry. Vertical integration means that companies own every part of the industry except the houses and the land that the turkeys are raised on because those belong to the farmers. The turkey starts with the breeder farms. This is where turkey toms and hens are bred together and eggs are laid by the turkey hens. The eggs are collected daily and shipped to the hatchery. The hatchery incubates the eggs until they hatch after 28 days. The baby turkeys or polts are delivered to the farmer who raises them until they are old enough and large enough to be processed for your dinner table. The feed mill makes the turkey feed that is delivered not only to the growing turkeys but also the breeder farms. The processing plant produces more than just whole turkeys. They can cut up turkey meat so you can buy just the parts that you want like turkey drumsticks or turkey breast. The company can also take the turkey meat and make such things as turkey burger meat, turkey bacon, turkey lunch meat, and turkey hot dogs. So now you know how your turkey meat gets to your dinner table. Turkeys make more than just the loud gobbling noise that is imitated every November. Of course the males do gobble and do so in groups at times. The contact calls are much softer vocalizations that can be made alone or can be repeated. Because people still hunt turkeys in the wild, there are such things as turkey calls that can be made and used to lure in turkeys for hunting. Because people get so good at turkey calls, there are even turkey calling contests to celebrate such expertise. Hopefully you have gobbled up this new information about the world of turkeys. You may be rather surprised at how many people make mistakes when they try to talk turkey. So be kind when you share with them your newly found knowledge.