Bourbon Red Turkeys

I am hoping there is a Bourbon Red Guru out there to answer this question.  I am in the beginning stage of raising them and hope this thread has lots of responses.  Good luck with your dilema.

I'm not a guru but I have been raising Bourbon Reds for years. I have been lucky or unlucky (however you look at it) that my girls will go broody at the drop of a hat. They will set on a golf ball if you let them.

Unfortunately, your hens will not go broody until hey are ready if they go broody at all. It's a waiting game. If you have any broody hens, I would suggest that you collect as many eggs as you can so that they don't go bad and put under the broody hens. Also, if you have an incubator, you may want to put them in there. If you can, you should mark the eggs as they lay (maybe too late to determine already layed eggs). This way you will know what eggs to collect in the event you have to collect the eggs for incubating.

Secondly, the hens will set where they want. Mine tend to find hidden places to lay eggs and set on them I just "happen" to find them and they have gone broody. So far this year, the girls have layed in a bush in front of the house, near the neighbor's garden and in a wooded area.

So where are they laying eggs? Is it a safe place that you can leave the eggs so that they can set on them and hatch them or not?

You will have to be patient and let nature take its course. They will only go broody when they are ready. To ensure that you can hatch those eggs, you may want to put them under a broody hen or get an incubator.

Any results?

We were using 2 different brands of styrofoam incubators, one old, one new with low under 30% hatch rates then we finally ponied up for a good brinsea and our 3 hatches this year were 90 to 95% successful. Haven't tried a broodie hen, none of our birds are old enough and we've had a record cold wet spring so I doubt any poults would have made it.

this year I upgraded to a LG. yes that was an upgrade from my 1940's sears and roebuck. My first 2 attempts were complete failures. lucky to get a 2% hatch. Upgrade to a GQF 1502. Hatch rate went to 99% first hatch and has stayed there. I am on my 10th hatch right now and I think it is going to be down, but I think the heat we had when I was collecting the eggs had an affect on it. I have 1 more hatch for next week, then I am done for the year. Each week I have been hatching all but 1 egg. so out of 30, 29 would hatch. I have had 25 -35 eggs hatching each week. I have been selling 5 to 10 poults a week and have a boat load in pens

coming into this thread late. just got a breeding trio of bourbon reds. proven breeders and producers. we had a nest of hens this past summer and i saw them kick out the eggs, so i collctd them. bad move. they were fertile and the hen was just moving them out to cool them off. now we want to do incubation....can it be done with a gas stove?

I'm not sure about a gas stove but I do have a co-worker that swears that she incubated some duck eggs using a heating pad.