Thanksgiving is only a week away. Wow, I can’t believe it. I hope you have your bird by now, or plan to get one this weekend.

Here are some turkey trivia questions for your Thanksgiving table this year:

Can you name the top 5 turkey producing states?
How many turkeys the top producing state grows annually?
What percent of turkeys grown in the U.S. are exported?
What are the top two countries that purchase U.S. turkey meat?
How many days does it take to incubate a turkey egg?
What’s the average lifespan of a turkey grown for Thanksgiving?
How far away can a turkey hear a sound?
Do turkeys have good eyesight?
Why don’t turkeys act more like woodpeckers?

To debunk a popular turkey tale, according to the bird-lovers at Audubon, Benjamin Franklin did not advocate for the turkey as the National Bird. However, according to The Franklin Institute, he was against the Bald Eagle, stating in a letter to his daughter that it was a “bird of bad moral character,” whereas the turkey was a “much more respectable bird … a bird of courage.”

Although the first official presidential turkey pardon wasn't given until George H. W. Bush's in 1989, reports credit many presidents with the tradition, including Abraham Lincoln, whose son took a liking to the turkey destined for Christmas dinner.

Kudos to all the turkey growers, possessors, wholesalers, distributors and retailers who’ve worked at a maddening pace over the past few weeks to get turkeys to our tables. Back in June and July when my turkey processors wanted the initial booking numbers for Thanksgiving birds this year, many of my customers were slow in getting numbers back to me. By the end of August, I was begging for pre-orders. About half of my customers threw their hands up and said they weren’t sure what a COVID-19 Thanksgiving would look like, so just repeat the same amount of birds we sourced for them last year. We turned in our pre-orders late, but with conservative numbers, based on last year’s orders.

The last two weeks, and this week especially, have been just crazy with people needing more birds for retail stores, companies that give turkeys to employees, and companies redirecting birds from foodservice to retail stores. We’ve been able to find most of the turkeys people need. Many thanks are owed to the turkey industry for doing such a great job this year with anticipating the needed supply. Thankfully, I think everyone that wants a turkey will have one.

With smaller average gatherings this year, many of my customers needed additional small-sized birds in the 8-12 pound range. Have you found this to be true in your company?

I spoke with Beth Breeding at the National Turkey Federation this week and used her and the Audubon website to make sure I had the right answers to the questions posed above. Here are the answers:

Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri.
Minnesota is number one with over 40 million turkeys produced annually.
Ten percent of turkey meat is exported.
Mexico is the number one buyer, followed by China.
28 days to hatch an egg.
14-16 weeks to grow a hen for thanksgiving, 18-22 weeks for a tom turkey.
A turkey can hear over a mile away.
They have excellent color vision, seeing three times more clearly than 20/20, with a 270-degree field of vision.
They can’t afford the headache medicine.

Even with all that’s happened in 2020, I do hope that you enjoy a grateful Thanksgiving with your families and find lots of things be thankful for. My family follows the tradition that each person at the table thinks of blessings during the past year that we’re thankful for. It sometimes seems trite and repetitive as we go around the table, but it’s still a great experience, especially this year. Count your blessings …

Two more turkey trivia questions, this time without the answers:

Why does a turkey have a gizzard? What does a turkey eat?

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s Turkey Time! Do you know your turkey trivia?

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