Bring your families and friends to Winterpast Farm on Monday.
Farmer Mary and son, Alex, took bunnies and a beautiful Crested Polish hen to the Heritage neighborhood today to help celebrate a birthday.
Both baby and adult bunnies got lots of love (and carrots!)
Contact Farmer Mary to schedule a visit from the friendly animals from Winterpast Farm to your home or business or neighborhood event.
Here are a few ideas for fun with kids for Thanksgiving artwork. Schedule a farm visit soon to collect feathers and pinecones!
http://pinterest.com/sherron/turkey-crafts/
Wild Turkey or Bald Eagle?
In the early days of the republic, Benjamin Franklin strongly objected to the choice of the Bald Eagle as our national symbol, preferring the Wild Turkey.
Franklin thought the Bald Eagle’s habit of stealing prey caught by other birds, particularly ospreys, an innaproppriate quality and wrote, “For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America”.
A male turkey has a SNOOD which is a fleshy bit that hangs over his beak. This, apparently, is what a turkey hen judges her potential mate by…the longer the snood, ,the more desirable he is. The snood can be retracted to a point or grown out to almost a foot long!
Turkey Terms
Caruncle – brightly colored growths on the throat region. Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship.
Gizzard – a part of a bird’s stomach that contains tiny stones. It helps them grind up food for digestion.
Hen – a female turkey.
Poult – a baby turkey. A chick.
Snood – the flap of skin that hangs over the turkey’s beak. Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship.
Tom – a male turkey. Also known as a gobbler.
Wattle – the flap of skin under the turkey’s chin. Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship.
Scientific genus and species: Meleagris gallopavo
Wild turkeys were important both to American Indians and early Europeans in America. For Plains and Eastern Indians, turkeys were an important food source and provided feathers for head dressings and arrows. Indians also used turkey spurs to make arrow points and other sharp utensils. Early Europeans used wild turkeys as a food source. However, believe it or not, historians are unsure if wild turkeys were served to the Pilgrims on our country’s first Thanksgiving.
Two species of wild turkeys are found in North America; the eastern wild turkey is the only subspecies found in North Carolina.
History and status
When early European settlers arrived in America turkeys were plentiful in North Carolina and were probably found throughout the entire state. By the turn of the century, however, few turkeys remained.
The decline was primarily due to unregulated and heavy market hunting, rapid deforestation and habitat destruction throughout the state. This decline continued into the 1960s. Turkeys are once again common in North Carolina, thanks to a restoration program implemented by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission that involved live-trapping and relocating wild turkeys from sites in North Carolina and other states to areas in the state where the bird had previously disappeared. From the 1950s through 2005, over 6,000 wild turkeys were trapped and relocated to 358 release sites across the state. Since restoration efforts have begun, North Carolina’s population has jumped from 2,000 birds in 1970 to over 150,000 in 2009. Wild turkey populations are still growing in many portions of the state.
Here is a picture of a wild turkey.
Come to Winterpast Farm and meet THOMAS the turkey and his three female friends soon!
A group of about 45 students and faculty from Millbrook High Schools IB program are enjoying a bonfire and hotdog roast at the farm tonight.
Everyone enjoyed holding bunnies and seeing all the animals by flashlight.
