what breed?

[abhaya]

I am new to turkeys I want to get some next spring. I live with my better 1/2 so there is just 2 of us. What is a good bird for meat that is not huge. I would be housing Them with my free range chickens. I will would like to get 1 tom and and a couple hens. would that work or do they pair up? I am thinking eat 1 for turkey day and keep the pair for breeding and hatch the following spring.

 

[pascopol]

Midget White on the small end size, Royal Palms are little larger if you do not like pure white birds.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

There are just two of us here as well and we eat turkey often. We skin them and cut them up most times. The whole birds are for special meals. We raise 6 varietes and size wise they go

Midget White & Beltsville small white - the smallest

Royal palm & Bourbon Red - mid sized

Standard Bronze and White Holland the largest.

1 tom and a few hens would work just fine. They aren't like chickens where the rooster will ride the hens to death.

We have pics on our website if you want to se what they look like.

Steve

 

[Tunastopper]

I love the midget whites for a small meal. They are like the cornish game hens of the turkeys. About the size of a large chicken only you raise them a year or more. For a family gathering like Thanksgiving go for the biggest heritage turkey. They are still small as turkeys go, compared to your broad breasted turkeys.

 

[bagendhens]

someone posted a link to porterturkeys.com
nice site for checking out some beautiful birds...

im hoping one day to set up a tiger bronze trip and a penciled palm trio.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
Midget White toms are about 20 pounds and the hens around 12 pounds.

Steve

 

[Tunastopper]

Quote:
Midget White toms are about 20 pounds and the hens around 12 pounds.

Steve

My experience is they are not that big. I do breed to the standards.

The standards for a midget white should be 13.8 for a tom and 8.2 for a hen. See page 16 from the ALBC.
http://albc-usa.org/documents/MasterBreeder/turkeys_combined.pdf

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

There is no standard for the Midget White, they were never accepted into the Americian Poultry Association. The APA has the ruling association for poultry not the ALBC. However the Beltsville Small White and the Midget White are very simular, they were developed for the same purpose, a smaller, standard size meat turkey. The BSW was admitted to the APA in 1951 and the weights are as follows.

Old Tom 21 pounds, Old hen 12
Young tom 17 pounds, young hen 10

Midget White Old tom and hen

Beltsville Small White

These are Midgets we are growing out this year.

Steve

 

[Tunastopper]

I am in to conservation. I believe the Midget White and the Beltsville White is two breeds distinct breeds and should be managed separately. When breeding Midget White turkeys, care should be taken in the selection of breeding stock to retain the small size of the breed. I will continue to select for Midget White toms average 13 lbs., hens average 8 lbs.

History of the midget white shows Wentworth as saving the midget whites. From the mid ’70s on, selection pressure was maintained to fix tom body weight to about 13 pounds and hens at about 8 pounds, he also set the color. Before that time the
they were still showing palm, silver bronze and white plumage patterns.

For those wanting to read more about the history of the midget white turkeys see http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/History-Midget-White-Turkey.aspx