Journal

• Aug 21, 2025

Photos from Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch

We are excited to share photos from Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch by celebrated National Geographic photographer, Jim Richardson! Richardson is a Kansas native and visited Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch to capture the day-to-day events on the farm.

• Oct 20, 2020

The Fate of American Poultry

In the early 1800s millions of Bison roamed the plains of the United States. Less than 100 years later their numbers had been reduced to a mere 541 animals. While early conservation efforts helped raise this figure modestly, it was only when American farmers began raising Bison for their meat that their population grew into the hundreds of thousands. Much like the early Bison, the millions of healthy Standardbred chickens and turkeys which used to occupy the American landscape are now on the brink of extinction.

• Oct 9, 2020

The Values Guiding Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch

We applaud Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch’s Frank Reese Ranch for putting into words the values that inspire him to continue to preserve endangered poultry breeds poultry.  Here are the values that guide his practice.

• Sep 5, 2020

A Brief History of Heritage Turkeys

• Apr 17, 2018

The 2018 Poults are Hatching!

Farmer Frank Reese is busy at Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch hatching the first poults of the 2018 heritage turkey season. See below for scenes from the farm!

• Nov 9, 2017

Jive Talkin’ Turkey , Part II

We were having so much fun talking about “turkeys of the 1970s” – a time when real Heritage turkeys were having a tough time fighting against the influx of industrial farming and a trend towards growing everything cheaper and faster, no matter what the ultimate cost — that we thought we’d go back and look at some of favorite TELEVISION TURKEYS of the 1970s!

• Nov 7, 2017

Jive Turkeys, Part 1

Oh, those wacky 1970s, when it seemed that just everyone was wearing white bellbottoms and dancing to the Hustle. That may have worked if you were eighteen-years-old and could get around on platform shoes, but when it was your uncle Murray trying to act hip, pretending to be younger than he was (by a lot!), we had an expression for him: Jive turkey!

• Nov 3, 2017

FRANK REESE, AMERICAN HERO

Frank is a true hero of the Heritage food movement — he is the first and only sustainable commercial farmer to receive certification by the American Poultry Association for his birds as purebreds, standards that were set in 1873 — and he has been featured in publications ranging from the New York Times to National Geographic. His story is the Rosetta Stone of sustainable farming, and the reason why when it comes to meat, the word “heritage” is synonymous with “heirloom.” Good Shepherd turkeys are the oldest line of turkey in America, 100 percent antibiotic free, and pasture raised on the Kansas prairie.