About Don
Discipline: Poultry
Specialties: Master Breeder of Brown Leghorn and Buckeye Chickens. Author and Speaker.
Associations: American Poultry Association, American Brown Leghorn Club President
Date of Birth: October 19, 1963
Location: Warrenton, VA
History, Career Highlights, and Future Goals
I have had chickens since I was 11. When I was 13 I showed a few at the Montgomery County Fair (Maryland) where I met the judge, Mr. Richard Holmes, who became my mentor. As an adult I got back into chickens in 1989 and started breeding SC Light Brown Leghorns. I am the top breeder of these now and am known all around the US and Canada for them. I used to work for the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (2004 - 2008), and organized and developed their Buckeye chicken recovery project. In this project we demonstrated that by using hands-on techniques from the early 1900s we could regain the productivity of a rare breed within 3 generations (rate of growth, egg laying ability). Buckeyes have also increased greatly in popularity and population size as a result of our work. So I am known also as a breeder of Buckeye chickens.
I have been involved in bringing products from rare breeds of livestock and poultry back to market. I worked for Ayrshire Farm, a 1,000 acre organic farm in Upperville, VA, from 2008-2009. We marketed rare breed turkeys and, both before joining this farm and after, conducted rare breed tasting events for turkey, beef, pork, and chicken. These events included some celebrity chefs, like Akiko Katayama from Iron Chef, and national media. I am also writing a revised version of Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys for Storey Publishing.
I speak on poultry nationally and have presented at: the first Mother Earth News Festival, Organic Grower's School, Carolina Farm Stewardship conference, many conferences of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, the Green Festival, Northeast Poultry Congress, Ohio National Poultry Show, Georgia Organics conference, Center for Poultry, and the Carolina Heritage Poultry Coalition. I am a repeat guest on the Chicken Whisperer internet radio blog show.
My writing has appeared in: Backyard Poultry Magazine (I write monthly and do a content edit for them), Countryside and Small Stock Journal, Mother Earth News, Hobby Farms magazine, Chickens magazine, City Chics by Pat Foreman, Talking Chicken by Kelly Klober, The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery, The Field Guide to Chickens by Pam Percy (though this more in the form of editing), and free downloadable poultry publications of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, including How to Raise Turkeys on Pasture and Chicken Assessment for Improving Productivity. I also use to write regularly for Poultry Press on the topics of breeding, raising, and conditioning poultry for show (1996 - 2006).
Why Do You Use Omega Fields' Products?
I use Omega Ultra Egg for nice sheen or feathers plus omegas for eggs.