Do Heritage Poults Grow Slow?

[Oregon Blues]

Just curious. I've got a Midget White poult that is 7 weeks old and would still fit comfortably inside a goose egg; legs, big feathers and all. He's alert and vigorous, so I don't think he has a health issue.

I'm wondering if he is exceptionally small, or if all heritage turkeys take so long to grow.

 

[erinszoo]

Midgets don't get very big so they won't grow much faster than a chicken does. I don't know about all heritage breeds. Our white hollands that we got in March are already as big as our adult turkeys and the males are fast passing them by. We've had horrible luck with poults before 10 weeks of age being fine one day and dead the next so I don't hold my breath about anything until they are at least three months old and able to range.

 

[Celie]

I have never raised midget whites, because they are suppose to only get as big as 12 pounds and that is tiny to me. I have chickens bigger, but they are very cute and should make a great pet. I have raised Giant BB Whites that reached as much as 80 pounds, but could not fit into my oven and was way too big to use whole. I wound up deboning one and grinding it for burgers, lasagna, meatballs, etc. Just the breast meat without any bones weighed 35 pounds and we had to lift them with the tractor to harvest them ! I left a few reach maturity to try to mate them , to later find out they have to be AI.(not a heritage breed). I now only raise White Hollands and love them. They tweet and sing with my husband, mate naturally, are very friendly, very fertile( only 2 eggs out of 70 were not fertile), are tender and delicious, easy to dress having white feathering, the gobblers weigh out from 35 to 40 pounds and the hens from 25 to 30 live weight. I don't put them into the yard until they are 6 weeks old, like all turkeys they are susceptible to a wet chill, younger than that. They are good foragers and beautiful running across a green grassy field. They also keep the fields fertilized. Who could ask for more.
Midget whites look the same as the Hollands, only much smaller and people I know who have them keep them as pets. Hope this helps?