Midget White Turkeys

[iajewel]

I took a look at their website. I would personally just rather get chicks. I know what I have then and S&S doesn't sell anything but eggs.. so..

I also see they have Beltsville whites The description says they are larger then the midgets how ever state that Toms of both breeds are 20lbs and hens of both breeds are about 12. This is confusing at best if one is larger, the question then arises.. how is it larger if the weight is the same?

 

[zekii]

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I have seen Steve's ebay listings ... good too know your eggs hatched well considering your're in CA & Steve's in NC , I am a little closer, but lately don't have much faith in my US Mail people. Will probably give the hatching eggs a try since there's no easy way to get poults here.

 

[2buckskins]

lajewel- Ok, I am no expert at all, but when I researched the breeds this is how I understood the difference between the MW's and the Beltsvilles. (Hopefully Steve can correct me if I'm wrong!) The Beltsville's are larger but weigh the same because their body style is different. The Midget White is designed to be a miniature version of the Broad Breasted White, so it is much larger in the breast area than other breeds, but smaller overall. The Beltsville will be a taller/bigger bird, but their breast meat will not be big like the MW. Basically, if the MW didn't have it's large breast it would weigh less, but since it does it adds extra weight to match the larger carcass of the Beltsville.

zekii- I bought 9 hatching eggs on eBay and Steve sent me 12. I incubated them alongside a bunch on Ancona duck eggs and buckeye chicken eggs, and they all had to suffer through TWO power outages! I hatched 7 eggs successfully and got 5 hens, 2 toms. I am very happy with these results!!!

 

[iajewel]

yup.. your explanation makes perfect sense.. thank you.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

delete

 

[2buckskins]

Thanks for the correction, Steve! I knew it was something like that...

 

[erthymom2]

I am picking up 9 MW stra poults tomorrow. I've always had the full-size turkeys and wanted to try my hand at midget whites - luckly i found a good breeder for smaller home farms like mine. Looks to be 2 toms and 7 hen poults. They will be in separate coop & pen for awhile until the chickes, geese and dogs all get used to them, them be able to share the 2 acres fenced yard.

 

[iajewel]

I bet your excited. I won't get mine until they hatch the 20th of July. How can you tell the sex when they are so young?

 

[ColbyNTX]

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You can't other than guessing!

 

[jodief100]

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The Beltsville Small White was bred in the late 1930's, the Midget not until the 50's. The idea on both was a smaller production type turkey. One of the things they were going for was a uniform size for ease of processing. 2buckskins - you have it backwards, the BSW is more like a BBW. They have a fuller, rounder shape like BBW. The MW has a longer body shape than the BSW. In the history of both nobody ever really came out and said but to me I always figured the MW was a "spin off" of the BSW. At it's peak in the late 40's early 50's the BSW was the number one turkey in the USA then here comes the MW that was pretty much the same thing. Regardless the BBW was the end for both just about.

Congrats on your hatch 2buckskins, nice ratio!

Steve

Steve, Which of the two breeds would you recomend for someone wanting to produce small turkeys as meat birds for the table? Which is more cost effective or is a better bird on the table?

I want to rasie one or the other but can't decide which......