SAVE A TURKEY - GOBBLE A BOOK

Blog Hop Tour - November 14-21

Can suburbanites raise turkeys in their 
own back yards?

Recent news articles about home-grown chickens, as well as a discussion of our plans for Thanksgiving, led us to the following questions:

How about turkeys? Would it be possible to create a personal back yard flock? (Homeowner association rules permitting, of course.)

Curiosity led us to our computers. The Internet holds a surprising number of articles on this subject.  Here are some turkey facts:

• It takes a broad-breasted Bronze turkey about 24 weeks to reach a weight of 16 to 25 pounds. (So you need to start planning your home-grown Thanksgiving meal way in advance.)

• Baby turkeys are called “poults.” (Why? Shouldn’t they be called “turks”?)

• Turkeys love to be around people. (So you should visit them once or twice a day.)

• You’ll need a yard or fenced pen measuring at least 75 ft. by 75 ft. - about 1/8 acre - to raise a dozen turkeys. (You could put them in your front yard but that might create a traffic pile-up, so behind your back yard fence might be best.)

• How to tell a tom from a hen? The toms will fluff out their feathers and start strutting at an early age. (Must be those pesky male hormones.)

• Detailed instructions are given for slaughtering and plucking. (Not for the faint of heart.)

We don’t know about the rest of suburbia, but after feeding, watering, and spending quality time with our turkeys, we’re not sure we’d be able to actually eat them. Six months of care, from birth to maturity, would make it awfully hard to swing that axe, especially if our toms looked as handsome as the one pictured below. Instead of gracing our serving platters, our turkeys would probably rule the roost, sit at our expanded Thanksgiving tables, and say, “Pass the chicken, please!”

So, rather than murder your hand-raised Meleagris gallopavo, we suggest a trip to your local supermarket for an anonymous bird. Or better still, as the theme of this blog tour says, SAVE A TURKEY and GOBBLE A BOOK!

GIVEAWAY: To encourage you, we're giving away a free eBook download of our novel, I.O.U. Sex. We'll also send you a collection of our favorite recipes for Turkey Day, from our kitchens to yours. To enter, simply comment on this post and include the name of your favorite Thanksgiving (or wintertime) dish. Be sure to also include your email address so we can contact you if you're our winner.

To connect to other blog tour participants, click here for the master list:  Save a Turkey - Gobble a Book 

I.O.U. Sex is available in paperback and eBook formats from Amazon, Barnes and Noble,  CreateSpace and Smashwords.

OFFICIAL RULES:

1.  Have fun!!

2.  Invite all of your friends. Spread the word!

3.  This tour starts: Monday, November 14, at midnight (Arizona Time)

     This tour ends: Monday, November 21, at midnight (Arizona Time)

     Winners will be drawn and their names posted by November 25 ***

4.  Meet and mingle with all the authors on their book pages. Experience

     a new destination at every stop. Participate in every blog contest, and

     be entered for chances to win multiple prizes. Every blog visited is

     another opportunity to win.

5.  Participation at all blogs is recommended but not required. 

     Remember,the more blogs you hop, the better your chances of 

     winning prizes.

     Every author and book page is waiting to meet and interact with you,

     so please be sure to show them some love.

6.  Did I mention to have fun? Whoo! Hoo! Here we goooooo!

*** Authors and book pages have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this blog tour is subject to these rules.

Sources for turkey facts:

Mother Earth News - "Raising Turkeys at Home"

Cooperative Extension, University of New Hampshire - "Raising Turkeys"

Photo source:  Wikipedia