About the Author
Doug Ottinger
Articles by Doug Ottinger
Breeding Ratios for Chickens and Ducks
Using specific breeding ratios may work better than exact numbers when it comes to breeding poultry.
Read More
Avoiding Foot and Leg Injuries in Waterfowl
Waterfowl can be very susceptible to foot and leg injuries. We can avoid many leg injuries in waterfowl with a little forethought.
Read More
Neural Problems in Crested Ducks
Unfortunately, the cuteness of crested ducks results from a genetic defect that can also cause significant neural problems.
Read More
Poultry Bones
Avian skeletons, including those found in songbirds, gallinaceous birds such as chickens and turkeys, and most waterfowl are unique and complex structures
Read More
Broody Chicken Breeds: A Frequently Under-Valued Asset
A broody hen or two is a wonderful resource that can be used to increase one’s flock. Many times, poultry keepers undervalue this heredity-linked trait in broody chicken breeds.
Read More
9 Lesser-Known Facts About Chickens and Ducks
Do chickens have tonsils? Can chickens get rabies? How do ducks mate? Do questions about these facts about chickens ever keep you up awake at night?
Read More
Bielefelder Chicken and Niederrheiner Chicken
Meet the Bielefelder chicken and Niederrheiner chicken, two breeds with long heredities, originating in the farmland of the Lower-Rhine region (or Neiderrhein) of Northern Germany.
Read More
How to Break Up a Broody Hen
There may be times when a broody hen is not in your best interest. Broodiness is infectious. Once one hen starts setting in earnest, it is highly likely that another hen will also start. And then another. Before long, there goes your egg production, most likely for several weeks. How do you break a broody hen?
Read More
How Long do Chickens Lay Eggs? Breeds that Go the Extra Mile!
How long do chickens lay eggs? Even hens from the best egg-laying chicken breeds eventually stop producing. Here is some general information about length of egg-production and some breeds that seem to have extra-long laying lives.
Read More
What Breeds Go The Extra Mile?
I polled a large number of veteran chicken keepers as to what they believed were the best egg-laying chicken breeds. For a breed to even be considered, one stipulation was that the breed had to lay at least three or four eggs per week and had to keep laying fairly consistently for at least three or four years. Most breeds chosen were brown-egg-layers.
Read More