TURKEY BREEDER SEES BIRDS AS INTELLIGENT PALS; NOT DESTINED FOR DINNER TABLE.Byline: Karen Thacker Community Columnist Most people associate turkeys with a Thanksgiving meal, but to turkey breeder breeder 1. a person with an animal enterprise involving the multiplication of the herd, flock or group. 2. a female animal used basically for the production of saleable young. Connie Dykehouse the birds are more like pets. They'll come when you call them, she says. Some would charge unfamiliar dogs, cats or people and chase them from the front yard. One turkey would ``sing'' in the front yard, then gobble up Verb 1. gobble up - eat a large amount of food quickly; "The children gobbled down most of the birthday cake" garbage down, shovel in, bolt down eat - take in solid food; "She was eating a banana"; "What did you eat for dinner last night?" bugs that emerged. ``We had a white turkey that would chase cars and also liked to ride in the front seat,'' said Dykehouse. The story that turkeys are so stupid they drown by looking up at the rain is just a myth, she says. ``What they're saying is, `Where the . . . is the water coming from?' '' For 10 years, Dykehouse been breeding meat turkeys, fancy purebred purebred progeny derived from at least several generations of animals of the same breed. purebred herds herds (or flocks) composed of purebred animals. Not necessarily registered animals. Distinct from crossbred herds. turkeys and other birds at her one-acre farm 25 miles west of Lancaster. She started a poultry hatchery hatchery a commercial establishment dedicated to the hatching of bird eggs to provide day old chicks and poults to the poultry industry. hatchery liquid the contents of unfertilized eggs. Used in petfood manufacture. , turkeys included, about 10 years ago - a project to help keep her son busy. They've raised dairy goats Dairy goats are personable, hardy, and a very rewarding animal. A female goat is called a Doe. A male goat is called a Buck. If the male goat is castrated it is called a wether. Goats milk is the most consumed milk in the world. , ducks, geese, some exotic birds The Exotic Birds was a pop music group formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1983 by three Cleveland Institute of Music percussion students, Andy Kubiszewski, Tom Freer and Tim Adams. They wrote their own music and were described as synth pop, techno-pop and techno-dance. , doves and, more recently, emus. She raises mostly purebred turkeys, but also some meat birds bred specifically for eating. These turkeys gain so much weight - up to 50 pounds - they won't be able to live much more than a year. ``Their weight is such that their heart goes out - their legs can't support them,'' she said. The ones she enjoys raising are the fancy varieties, which are lighter and without much breast meat. Of the turkeys she bred this year ``the majority of them went as pets and livestock that would stay - they weren't Thanksgiving dinners The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States is a large meal, starring a large roasted turkey. All of the dishes in the traditional American version of Thanksgiving Dinner are made from foods native to North America, according to tradition the Pilgrims received these ,'' she said. What surprises most people, she said, is that they are actually smart animals. ``They are so incredibly intelligent,'' Dykehouse said. ``They bond with people. They are just a beautiful animal.'' Considering turkeys as smart and good pets makes them less appetizing, she said. ``We eat meat and we sometimes eat our own meat, but we rarely eat turkey,'' she said. ``As humans we seem to think of food animals as lower on the food chain and not as intelligent. . . . The more intelligent animals are, the less likely we are to use them as food.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO This white holland turkey was raised by Connie Dykehouse at her one-acre farm out in Neenach. |
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