Bourbon Red Turkey

Bourbon Red Turkey is an American heritage turkey breed developed in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in the late nineteenth century by crossing Buff, Bronze and White Holland turkey stock to fix a rich red-brown plumage with white wing and tail feathers. It became a popular commercial turkey breed in the early twentieth century, valued for its flavorful meat and attractive appearance at market, before larger, faster growing broad breasted white turkeys displaced nearly all heritage breeds from commercial production by the mid twentieth century. Bourbon Red numbers fell sharply as a result, and the breed became a focus of heritage poultry conservation efforts from the late twentieth century onward, including listing by the Livestock Conservancy. It is raised today mainly by small farms and heritage poultry keepers, prized for meat quality and its ability to breed and reproduce naturally, unlike the commercial Broad Breasted White Turkey.