Miniature/bantam turkey?

[GCrumb]

I can see it working very well for small-scale vegetable farms -- organic pest control that you can sell as premium meat at the end of the growing season. Given that they really don't destroy gardens or eat many types of produce. My neighbor had good results with a Royal Palm turkey in a greenhouse, but the bird would have had to jump to get into the planters.

 

[R2elk]

I can see it working very well for small-scale vegetable farms -- organic pest control that you can sell as premium meat at the end of the growing season. Given that they really don't destroy gardens or eat many types of produce. My neighbor had good results with a Royal Palm turkey in a greenhouse, but the bird would have had to jump to get into the planters.

Turkeys will feast on the produce in a garden. They won't eat the onions but they will snip them off or pull them.

They love melons, pumpkins and tomatoes.

While they don't dig like chickens, they will dig craters to dust bathe in.

 

[SarahGfa]

I think mini-turkeys could be really useful for pest control. Chickens destroy the garden, digging everything up. Turkeys trample everything down chasing grasshoppers. But what about a chicken sized turkey? @FloorCandy, how are the midget whites in that regard?

I think turkeys just have really great personalities. You can hug and squeeze them, take one for a walk around the neighborhood. Turkeys bond well with people and seem to be more comfortable traveling to new places than chickens.

Mini-turkeys could be useful for emotional support animals, while being small enough to live in a small backyard. You do have a good point that the tame personality would go away if ocellated genes are introduced.

Midget whites are probably most of the way there, but it seems wrong to use a miniature version of BBW. It's like trying to turn a cornish cross into bantam chicken.

 

[FloorCandy]

I think turkeys just have really great personalities. You can hug and squeeze them, take one for a walk around the neighborhood. Turkeys bond well with people and seem to be more comfortable traveling to new places than chickens.

Mini-turkeys could be useful for emotional support animals, while being small enough to live in a small backyard. You do have a good point that the tame personality would go away if ocellated genes are introduced.

Midget whites are probably most of the way there, but it seems wrong to use a miniature version of BBW. It's like trying to turn a cornish cross into bantam chicken.

I feel like you couldn’t really keep just one as an emotional support animal, I think you would want to keep at least 3-4, maybe pick the friendliest one to be more of a support animal, but it would still want it’s turkey family. It would poop everywhere, and it smells terrible haha. The big meaty Tom’s would have the most potential health issues, so if you kept a small group of hens you wouldn’t face the same health hurdles as trying to keep Cornish x chickens long term.

Now if you’re a person who enjoys the emotional support of a pet in your yard while you relax, garden, exercise, etc, turkeys can fit the bill, but not on an airplane or at work hehe. Keep in mind, if your yard is small, the hens will go over the fence and explore the neighbors yards, and the Tom’s will follow the hens. If I only had my Tom, he would probably stand at my back door strutting and displaying all day, and never try to leave the yard, but girls like to try out that nice tree next door…

 

[Amer]

Hey, some of them are right useful A friend of mine had a dairy of mini-nubians, because she didn't want to work with animals that outweigh her (maybe she gets enough of that from the Great Danes) and largely those goats seemed to produce as much milk as standards while eating less.

I'm a little guy but couldn't ride my mom's pony without looking as if I was about to sack Rome, but the pony pulls a cart prettily and would pull a plow if we had one and asked her to. And 'miniature' Jersey cattle are actually the original size.

I think mini-turkeys could be really useful for pest control. Chickens destroy the garden, digging everything up. Turkeys trample everything down chasing grasshoppers. But what about a chicken sized turkey? @FloorCandy, how are the midget whites in that regard?

I figure there's already a turkey variety about the right size that might be perfect except they're just not ornamental enough.

I bet that even if a hybrid with the occellated turkey produced viable and fertile offspring it wouldn't be such a great idea because you would sacrifice tameness and cold-hardyness for colour when there are already so many interesting and beaautiful colours in domestic turkeys. I'm particularly delighted with all these colours that are possible but do not breed true and that I've never seen outside of the Porter's website.

I definitely would find mini turks to be useful. I eat my bantams, after all.

I think turkeys just have really great personalities. You can hug and squeeze them, take one for a walk around the neighborhood. Turkeys bond well with people and seem to be more comfortable traveling to new places than chickens.

Mini-turkeys could be useful for emotional support animals, while being small enough to live in a small backyard. You do have a good point that the tame personality would go away if ocellated genes are introduced.

Midget whites are probably most of the way there, but it seems wrong to use a miniature version of BBW. It's like trying to turn a cornish cross into bantam chicken.

I agree. Turkey personalities are the best.
Midget Whites breed naturally though and are considered heritage, even if they have BBW ancestry and look like BBW. I think hatcheries advertise them as “mini BBW” because people are more likely to know what a BBW is than a White Holland. Also they call it “broad breasted” but I don’t think it can be both “broad breasted” and long-lived and naturally breeding. I think they actually just have good carcass quality compared to a lot of hatchery strains which don’t live up to APA Standard which calls for birds that actually have decent market value. (Not that Midget Whites have a standard.)

 

[FloorCandy]

I definitely would find mini turks to be useful. I eat my bantams, after all.

I agree. Turkey personalities are the best.
Midget Whites breed naturally though and are considered heritage, even if they have BBW ancestry and look like BBW. I think hatcheries advertise them as “mini BBW” because people are more likely to know what a BBW is than a White Holland. Also they call it “broad breasted” but I don’t think it can be both “broad breasted” and long-lived and naturally breeding. I think they actually just have good carcass quality compared to a lot of hatchery strains which don’t live up to APA Standard which calls for birds that actually have decent market value. (Not that Midget Whites have a standard.)

Agreed, my midget whites breed naturally, but I can see why their larger relatives can’t. The males stand on the hens, in the bbw, the males can easily weigh more than 2x the females, and I can see this hindering breeding by hurting the hens, or the giant males lose balance etc.

 

[SarahGfa]

I definitely would find mini turks to be useful. I eat my bantams, after all.

I agree. Turkey personalities are the best.
Midget Whites breed naturally though and are considered heritage, even if they have BBW ancestry and look like BBW. I think hatcheries advertise them as “mini BBW” because people are more likely to know what a BBW is than a White Holland. Also they call it “broad breasted” but I don’t think it can be both “broad breasted” and long-lived and naturally breeding. I think they actually just have good carcass quality compared to a lot of hatchery strains which don’t live up to APA Standard which calls for birds that actually have decent market value. (Not that Midget Whites have a standard.)

I have never seen a Midget White in person. Is this one a Midget White? It looks smaller than BBW, but much larger than what I would want as a pet.

(this guy keeps his turkey as a house pet! https://www.facebook.com/estherthew...-and-quiet-too-until-mr-jea/1515717948535424/)

 

[FloorCandy]

I have never seen a Midget White in person. Is this one a Midget White? It looks smaller than BBW, but much larger than what I would want as a pet.View attachment 3540400

(this guy keeps his turkey as a house pet! https://www.facebook.com/estherthew...-and-quiet-too-until-mr-jea/1515717948535424/)

There’s another small variety called Beltville I think, they’re pretty similar in size I believe, maybe slightly larger.

That’s about the size of my Tom, it’s really not as big as it looks, Tom’s are like 60% feathers, if it was a hen it would appear about the size of a beagle maybe, but much lighter than a dog. I’ve picked all of mine up and carried them across the yard to the pen, and I can put one under each arm, even the Tom, but he squirms too much so I need two arms for him.

That turkey probably poops all over his stuff lol, and the dog probably tries to eat the poop, because for some reason dogs seem to think turkey poop is the top tier of poultry provided snacks haha.

 

[secuono]

I didn't mean any breed in particular, not even a meat breed. Just wanting a regular turkey, but in banty size.