WARNING: This post could be considered gross by some. Read no farther if you get squeamish with bugs and dead critters. You can thank me for posting this late at night and hopefully, the squeamish will pass right over and not notice it! 🙂
Our neighbor was cleaning a turkey (that he later smoked and we ate and it was delicious!) and I had never looked at what was in the craw. I will never look at these giant beetles and not think of the turkeys eating them.
Turkey’s Last Meal
There was probably 2 – 3 cups of corn, beetles and acorns in the craw. We have so many of those big beetles and so far, I haven’t noticed them bothering anything I’m growing so I don’t bother them but it looks like the turkeys like them.
I thought it was so interesting that he pulled out several handfuls of this mixture. Seeing it didn’t bother me but briefly, I thought . . turkeys eat beetles and then I eat turkey so to some degree . . I’m eating beetles but then I remembered that chickens eat worms and grasshoppers and I eat chicken so I stopped those thoughts right quick like.
And, you can thank me for this post because otherwise, how would you have known what was in a wild turkey’s craw? 🙂
Kathy C in OR says
He is my ‘city girl’ knowledge base showing, WHAT IS A TURKEY CRAW?
Sherrill says
I didn’t even know it was called a craw (assuming ‘it’ is the stomach). It is kinda gross but not too bad! LOL
Dottie N. says
LOL – they definitely eat whatever goodies they find on the ground!
Katie Z. says
Awesome!
Marsha B says
Great education! ! ! I grew up on a farm in east central Illinois and one of my favorite events was when Dad would kill a couple of chickens and Mom would clean them. All of us kids would gather around to watch and it was a wonderful early biology lesson. Mom would talk about the different parts and what their function was. It was really cool and fresh fried chicken tasted great. Now being a city girl for most of my adult life, I don’t think I could clean a chicken myself! ! !
Lee says
My first job out of high school was in a small local poultry cleaning business. By the time the turkey came around on the hooks for cleaning, all the feathers had been plucked and the craw cleaned so never saw what was in the craw. However, we had to use scrapers to clean out the cavity from the back end which was already opened and the innards dangling on the outside so that the liver and gizzard could be removed – we scraped out the lungs and other stuff. Compared to the chickens, turkeys smelled awful.
wanda jordan says
That is exactly why I can’t kill chickens. I helped my mother in law do once and didn’t eat chicken for 3 years. I’ll buy mine. The crawl stinks to high heaven too. The smell ,well enough said. I ‘m glad it tasted good but I’d be veggin if I had to clean one. That is why I’ve not gotten any chickens yet. What would I do with them when they stopped laying. I couldn’t kill them they would be set for life if left up to me.
Jackie says
Yuck, but it did make me chuckle.
shirley bruner says
That is too funny….always learning something from you, Judy. I would love to hijack this post and copy it onto my blog if that is ok with you. it is too good not to share.
Marky says
We have a lot of wild turkeys here, frequently in my yard. The mess they leave irritated me until my sister told me wood ticks are one of their favorite foods, and we have a lot of those too. Now I see the turkeys as a blessing!
Theresa says
Looks like that turkey was well fed.
Linda says
Like others of your commenters, we have a lot of wild turkeys around here. They really are hard on the flower beds and the young garden. Funny old birds, marching single file down the road, not flinching as the cars queue up behind them with honking horns. With today’s biology lesson, I will be looking at them a bit differently now. lol
Sherry says
sorry for no punctuation, as i just had shoulder surgery which means no quilting for a while, but i hope turkeys eat grasshoppers.