Lydiard Turkeys Prepare For Christmas

SWINDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 30: The sun sets as free range bronze turkeys gather their barn for the night at Lydiard Turkeys, a week ahead of their slaughter for Christmas, near Swindon on November 30, 2016 in Wiltshire, England. The hand reared turkeys arrived at the award winning farm that has been owned by the same family for over 100 years, when they were a day old in June, living in a barn at night and an orchard during the day. They will be slaughtered, dry plucked and hung at the farm next week, before being collected by customers just before Christmas. According to Chris Rumming slaughtering the birds at the farm improves the bird's welfare by eliminating unnecessary stress from travel meaning the meat tastes better. Traditional bronze turkeys all but disappeared in the 1960s and 1970s, replaced by the much faster growing white-coloured variety, however some producers felt this was at the expense of the taste and flavour of the meat and so a few farms have reverted back to the much slower to grow and more expensive to keep bronze variety. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)