Heft's Custom Hatchery

05/17/2025

These are Bourbon Red Turkeys, one of our most popular colors, if you have an order in for Bourbon Red you may be on a longer wait list, here are some facts about this color, and pictures if you are unfamiliar with them. (Photos are not of our birds, photo credit, Google.)

Bourbon Red turkeys are a heritage breed of domestic turkey known for their striking appearance, excellent flavor, and historical roots in the United States.

Key Characteristics:

Appearance: They have a beautiful, rich reddish-brown plumage with white flight feathers and tail tips. Their beak is light horn-colored, and their legs and feet are pinkish-white.

Size: Males (toms) typically weigh around 23–33 pounds, and females (hens) weigh around 12–18 pounds when mature.

Temperament: Generally calm and friendly, though toms can become territorial during breeding season.

Hardiness: Bourbon Reds are well-adapted to free-range environments and are good foragers. They're hardy birds that can handle various weather conditions.

History:

This variety was developed in the late 1800s in Kentucky, specifically in Bourbon County—hence the name. It was created by crossing Buff, Bronze, and White Holland turkeys to combine hardiness and quality meat characteristics.

Uses:

Meat: They are prized for their flavorful, lean meat—considered superior to broad-breasted commercial turkeys.
Pets: They are friendly when hand raised from poults and will follow you around and be your friend.
Breeding: As a heritage breed, they can reproduce naturally and are often raised by small farms and homesteaders interested in sustainable practices.
Bourbon Reds are a true breeding variety

04/28/2025

Do you have chickens? Have you ever thought about getting turkeys to complement your chickens or simply instead of chickens? There is not as much info out there on turkeys, but they are excellent substitutes, if you are ready for something different, here are a few key differences:

1. Turkeys are slower growing, which means it takes them longer to lay eggs, but if you are planning to butcher it means the meat has a higher dark to white ratio than chickens or even the meat bred turkeys that you get from the store.

2. Turkeys are better foragers than chickens which means the eggs and meat are based off of more natural food.

3. Turkeys are known for their friendliness and loyalty to people, many refer to them as 'feathered puppies' (minus of course the constant chewing of your favorite slippers😅) .

4. Adult male turkeys make a noise called a gobble, it is a much lower frequency sound than a rooster crow, more soothing and evenly toned.

5. Because of more instincts than chickens, over the course of a laying season it is very common for a turkey hen to go broody, (unless preventative steps are taken), and turkeys are excellent mothers, they have higher success with keeping hawks at bay than a chicken will, due to their size and strong parenting instincts, it has even been noted a few times that a tom went broody and helped a hen incubate the eggs.

6. Since they are foragers, turkeys do not have the strong instincts to scratch around in their bedding like chickens do, which means turkey pens are often cleaner, less dusty and there is less water wasted due to bedding getting displaced into the waterer.

7.Male turkeys are less likely to become aggressive than roosters, they are more gentle and easy-going than most roosters.

8. While Turkey and Chicken eggs both offer similar nutritional value, turkey eggs have nearly 2 times the protein if a chicken egg, as well as more vitamins b9 and b12, higher levels of vifamin A and higher iron content, however they are also slightly higher in calories and fat. Chickens do typically have a longer laying season, typically turkeys only lay from march- oct, but individual results may vary depending on if a light is applied in their house, and geographical location.

9. Unlike chickens there are only 2 breeds of domestic turkeys; broad-breasted, (meat birds) and Heritage, (dual purpose) but there are dozens and dozens of different color varieties for Heritage turkeys, if you would like more info on our available colors you can reference our color chart on our main page.

All things considered, having any birds of your own is better than relying on a store to supply you with everything, if you are interested in learning more about turkeys, or if you would like to get on our waiting list to get some of your own, message us today, or make an appointment to come visit the farm and see what it's all about, we love having guests😊.

04/27/2025

We candle our turkey eggs at 2 weeks, we're looking forward to seeing this little guy in 2 weeks😍🤩,
Message us today to get on the waiting list

04/14/2025

We often get asked 'what's the difference between poults and chicks?' My standard answer is that while they have similar qualities, chicks will mature slightly faster than poults, but poults are much more personable and friendly than chicks, and even as they mature they maintain their friendliness, and if you leave the door open for a second too long you might find a turkey in your house😅, they are called 'feathered puppies' for a reason

We are a Heritage Turkey breeder, Chicken breeder, and we also offer custom incubation services. Message us today to get on our order list.

04/14/2025

Its that time of year again🤩
Message us now to get your order in

04/14/2025

Theres not much cuter than a poult. Order yours today

04/11/2025

Our incubators are purring, we'll have poults in a couple of weeks, with more eggs going in every Monday.

Available color varieties are:
Bronze.
Bourbon Red.
Red bronze.
Golden Narragansett
Narragansett
Sweetgrass

All our poults are sold Straight run, 1 day-1 week are $15 each.
2 week old poults are $20 and the price increases $5 for every following week.
Shipping is NOT available at this time, we will meet in Marshall, Hollister MO, or Green Forest for $40, other local delivery outside this range may be available, send us a message and we will see what we can work out.

We sell hatching eggs upon request, they will be color coded if possible. We make no guarantee on hatch rates, we are very successful with our setup but are not responsible once eggs leave our hands
Eggs are $60 a dozen or $30 for a half dozen.
We do NOT ship eggs, local pickup only.

Have eggs and no incubator? Or dont have the time to get the supplies to hatch your own eggs? As our name suggests we also do custom hatching, $1 per incubator space, per week of incubation time, so for example chicks (3 week incubation period) $3.00 per chicken egg, $4.00 per turkey (4 week incubation period). We can hatch parakeets, quail, pheasant, guinea, chicken, duck, turkey and most goose eggs, if an egg isn't successfully hatched we will refund you 50% back on each unsuccessful egg, we will do everything in our power possible to keep a hatchling alive and well, any sign of any of the following;
Splay leg.
Crooked foot.
Curled toe
Or other non-emergency, will be addressed immediately upon discovery.