- Jun 28, 2011
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Sam, known to BYC members as Bills vs Beaks, has been a member of our community since August, 2016. He will most often be found in the Ducks section and is known for his friendliness and beautiful flock of ducks.
1. Tell us a bit more about yourself.
Well first off, I guess I should say who I am. I am Sam, Sam I am, no I do not like green eggs OR green ham. I live in New Jersey, aka the garden state, aka the most densely populated state in the union. I know, that makes a lot of sense
I'm still pretty young by most of you guys standards, although I do feel old sometimes.
The exact amount of people in my family is classified, but I will say, there's a lot of us. And I'm the oldest kid
Apart from my ducks I like airplanes, guns, and trucks. I own an f-150, which is a lot of fun (go ford and manual transmission
)
I bake sometimes, usually bread. But I love brownies and chocolate chip cookies too
As for my occupation, I'm a lifeguard at two different pools and at one of them I also teach swim lessons for kids. And I'm a registered swim coach so I help with a swim team as well.
um........that's really all that's exciting about me. I'm kinda boring
2. Why and when did you start keeping poultry?
Time for a scandalous revelation. I don't keep chickens.
I keep ducks and geese. Right now, that number is..... 13 ducks and three geese. Two saxony,
two appleyard,
three khaki, three big for a mallard/small for a rouen (pretty sure production bred mallard),
two Cayuga, and one I'm pretty sure is a saxony but I got him as a mystery so im not gonna say it 100% yet in case its not and then Ill look dumb. It and the cayugas are only 3 weeks old
Geese are the same age, two african and one chinese.
I started with them in February 2016, what happened was we just moved and were gonna get chickens. And then one day mom was at tractor supply getting rabbit food and there were khaki ducklings and as with most people, she couldn't resist. And I kinda became responsible for them and the rest is history. I really loved them and wanted ones that would be a little tamer, so, saxonies. then I met someone at tractor supply who need to rehome appleyards, and then I've always wanted ducks that can fly......mallards. The two cayugas came with the mystery duck as part of the minimum purchase.
As for the geese, after I started loving waterfowl, they were naturally next. And I had goose once and I loved it, as well as the fact we have a lot of grass to mow.
3. Which aspect(s) of poultry keeping do you enjoy the most?
There's so much..... first of all the eggs, of course! Fresh pastured eggs are nothing like store eggs, and duck eggs are even bigger as well. Couple times I've had eggs over 100g (double yolks)
Then they're fun to watch. Whether bathing, running around foraging in a big group, waddling in a row, noodling mud.......always entertaining and very relaxing to watch. Those of you you who own birds know what I'm talking about.
Then there's the cuddly ones who you can sit with and hug and kiss and just love on. And who needs a reason to do that?
4. Which members of your flock, past and present, stand out for you and why?
Well Heidi must get first mention. She my favourite girl out of all of them. She's so pretty and very lovable, and shes the big 100g eggs layer.
Also Blondie. I lost her recently to a fox
She was a very sweet kahki and though she often hurt her leg for reasons I couldn't figure out, all the attention she got because of it made her very sweet. I miss her a lot...
5. What was the funniest (poultry related) thing(s) that happened to you in your years as poultry owner?
I'm afraid this section will be very disappointing. Apart from tossing the smaller birds up in the air to make them fly a little bit, or ducks bellying through snow like penguins, not much:
6. Beside poultry, what other pets do you keep?
We live on 3.6526749813 acres and have goats, chickens, guineas, rabbits, dog and cat, there's a budgie in the house and a fish tank too. Plus........ducks.
7. Anything you'd like to add?
I'd like to say thanks to Sumi for asking me to do this, and for everyone else on BYC (moderators especially ) for making a really fun place to be part of. I've met some really good friends here I talk with all the time and I've really enjoyed that. And I never thought I'd get a VIP interview either! 
If anyone has any other specific questions to ask me, just ask! I'll be happy to help if I can
Sam
https://www.backyardchickens.com/members/bills-vs-beaks.443558/
See here for more about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/905602/introducing-vip-member-interviews/0_30
1. Tell us a bit more about yourself.
Well first off, I guess I should say who I am. I am Sam, Sam I am, no I do not like green eggs OR green ham. I live in New Jersey, aka the garden state, aka the most densely populated state in the union. I know, that makes a lot of sense
I'm still pretty young by most of you guys standards, although I do feel old sometimes.
The exact amount of people in my family is classified, but I will say, there's a lot of us. And I'm the oldest kid
Apart from my ducks I like airplanes, guns, and trucks. I own an f-150, which is a lot of fun (go ford and manual transmission
)I bake sometimes, usually bread. But I love brownies and chocolate chip cookies too
As for my occupation, I'm a lifeguard at two different pools and at one of them I also teach swim lessons for kids. And I'm a registered swim coach so I help with a swim team as well.
um........that's really all that's exciting about me. I'm kinda boring
2. Why and when did you start keeping poultry?
Time for a scandalous revelation. I don't keep chickens.
I keep ducks and geese. Right now, that number is..... 13 ducks and three geese. Two saxony,
two appleyard,
three khaki, three big for a mallard/small for a rouen (pretty sure production bred mallard),
two Cayuga, and one I'm pretty sure is a saxony but I got him as a mystery so im not gonna say it 100% yet in case its not and then Ill look dumb. It and the cayugas are only 3 weeks old
Geese are the same age, two african and one chinese.I started with them in February 2016, what happened was we just moved and were gonna get chickens. And then one day mom was at tractor supply getting rabbit food and there were khaki ducklings and as with most people, she couldn't resist. And I kinda became responsible for them and the rest is history. I really loved them and wanted ones that would be a little tamer, so, saxonies. then I met someone at tractor supply who need to rehome appleyards, and then I've always wanted ducks that can fly......mallards. The two cayugas came with the mystery duck as part of the minimum purchase.
As for the geese, after I started loving waterfowl, they were naturally next. And I had goose once and I loved it, as well as the fact we have a lot of grass to mow.
3. Which aspect(s) of poultry keeping do you enjoy the most?
There's so much..... first of all the eggs, of course! Fresh pastured eggs are nothing like store eggs, and duck eggs are even bigger as well. Couple times I've had eggs over 100g (double yolks)
Then they're fun to watch. Whether bathing, running around foraging in a big group, waddling in a row, noodling mud.......always entertaining and very relaxing to watch. Those of you you who own birds know what I'm talking about.
Then there's the cuddly ones who you can sit with and hug and kiss and just love on. And who needs a reason to do that?
4. Which members of your flock, past and present, stand out for you and why?
Well Heidi must get first mention. She my favourite girl out of all of them. She's so pretty and very lovable, and shes the big 100g eggs layer.
Also Blondie. I lost her recently to a fox
She was a very sweet kahki and though she often hurt her leg for reasons I couldn't figure out, all the attention she got because of it made her very sweet. I miss her a lot...5. What was the funniest (poultry related) thing(s) that happened to you in your years as poultry owner?
I'm afraid this section will be very disappointing. Apart from tossing the smaller birds up in the air to make them fly a little bit, or ducks bellying through snow like penguins, not much:
6. Beside poultry, what other pets do you keep?
We live on 3.6526749813 acres and have goats, chickens, guineas, rabbits, dog and cat, there's a budgie in the house and a fish tank too. Plus........ducks.
7. Anything you'd like to add?
I'd like to say thanks to Sumi for asking me to do this, and for everyone else on BYC (moderators especially
) for making a really fun place to be part of. I've met some really good friends here I talk with all the time and I've really enjoyed that. And I never thought I'd get a VIP interview either! If anyone has any other specific questions to ask me, just ask! I'll be happy to help if I can
Sam
https://www.backyardchickens.com/members/bills-vs-beaks.443558/
See here for more about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/905602/introducing-vip-member-interviews/0_30
