# Turkeys & virgin births

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkeys-virgin-births/254>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 17, 1999, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkeys-virgin-births/254 "1999-10-17T05:18:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 1999, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkeys-virgin-births/254/1 "1999-10-17T05:18:00Z")

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Here is the column link The Address: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991008.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991008.html)

What isn’t explained fully is just HOW does this occur. Are the turkeys using sperm from a previous mating or what?. Is it possible that a turkey that never mated gives birth?

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 1999, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkeys-virgin-births/254/2 "1999-10-17T05:20:00Z")

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Lets try that link again  
[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991008.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991008.html)

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**Author:** ![MikeM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/41988e/32.png) [@MikeM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeM)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 1999, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkeys-virgin-births/254/3 "1999-10-17T06:16:00Z")

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There’s one other way, minus sex, for turkeys to get pregnant… I used to work for a turkey processing company which bred turkeys also. Rather than rely on nature, a group of guys performed Artificial Insemination on the females. This is pretty normal across the industry for captive flocks. Never got a straight answer on how they gathered the sperm, but understand it was a manual process. However bad your job might be, this would have to be worse…

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 1999, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkeys-virgin-births/254/4 "1999-10-17T13:50:00Z")

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I would think that in order for this to happen the egg probally never split the dna so it contains all the chromozones \<sp\>, not 1/2. and produces a clone. Just a guess.

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**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 1999, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkeys-virgin-births/254/5 "1999-10-18T23:13:00Z")

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This being the third virgin birth discussion, it might be worthwhile referring to:

[http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000247.html](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000247.html)

and

[http://www.newscientist.com/nsplus/insight/clone/virgin.html](http://www.newscientist.com/nsplus/insight/clone/virgin.html)