A History of the Midget White Turkey

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These midget white turkey poults (chicks) will grow up to be friendly, productive birds.

In the early 1960s, there was a commercial interest in developing miniature versions of the broad breasted large white and bronze turkeys. Experiments to produce small turkey broilers (6 to 9 pounds) had been disappointing due to immature fleshing and finish. The only available turkeys in this lower weight range were the Beltsville white turkeys.

The Beltsville whites were characterized by excellent reproductive ability; however, their poor fleshing and body conformation were unpopular with many consumers. This led to attempts to develop a small version of the large broadbreasted stocks. Several miniature turkey lines were developed, but all suffered from poor reproductive performance. Most of these originated from crosses between broadbreasted large stocks and the Beltsville whites, with subsequent selection for small size. Some were backcrosses to the large, broadbreasted stocks, followed by more selection.

At the University of Massachusetts, J. R. Smyth Jr. crossed an excellent line of broad-breasted whites with royal palm turkeys he had obtained from Dr. Edward Buss of Pennsylvania State University. The royal palms were a small exhibition strain, with reasonably good breast fleshing. Starting with the first generation crossbreds, Smyth selected on an individual bird basis (no records of specific pedigrees were kept) for small size, good breast fleshing and total balance.

After three generations, a financial problem and need for more space for other experiments necessitated that Smyth get rid of his miniatures. Reluctant to see them lost, he gave them to one of the farm workers who had contacts with exhibition breeders of poultry. The farm worker, in turn, swapped them to a breeder in Wisconsin for some show bantams. At the time Smyth gave them away, they were still showing palm, silver bronze and white plumage patterns.

In the late summer of 1971, B.C. Wentworth received a call from an avian fancier in Wisconsin. He had six turkeys (two toms and four hens) from a very small line, which he was unable to keep over the coming winter. He wanted to know if Wentworth was interested in this stock. Wentworth picked up these birds and found that they had wing bands. In addition to the numbers, the backside of each band had the abbreviation “U of Mass.” Wentworth realized these were the midget white turkeys that Smyth had been developing at the University of Massachusetts.

  • Published on Aug 20, 2008
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