Man Raises a Duck in His Beard

[Spongiform]

Yeah it really depends on how you look at things. I'm just some dude who's trying to build a home stead, a new life for himself. I decided to try hatching out some chicken eggs. I had some of my own eggs but the incubator I borrowed held 36, so I went over to the neighbors chicken farm and gathered up 'rogue' eggs from around the place. Those don't get eaten because you don't know how old they are or if they've been partially sat on.

So one of those eggs, a little blueish egg (like an americauna) would lay was mixed in there. Turns out it was a duck egg. I can now tell the two apart, but they look very similar at a glance.

So the friend I borrowed the incubator from forgot to tell me I needed to put water in it for humidity, and because I was super busy working on my house, I failed to read up on the subject at the time. So all of the eggs failed, except ONE. That one egg. And out came a duck.

So I brought my duckling home, I had the incubator at a friends place who has more stable temps. I sat on my bed/couch thing and put a towel down, put the little peeps on my lap and took some pics. After about 2 minutes of checking things out, the little peeps looked up at me, went PEEP PEEP PEEP! and ran up my chest, squirmed up under my beard, and snuggled in for a nap.

So every day I'd get the peeps out of its cage and let em play on my lap with a towel of course, then tuck a towel up under my chin/shirt (ducks poo a lot), and i'd just fool around online, play a video game, watch tv,whatever and little peeps would just go to sleep under my chin and peep softly.

As cute as it is, peeps is a spaz monkey and spends as much time being cute and cuddly as he/she does running around in circles screaming like a banshee and knocking **** over

I've poked my head in a few times on this forum, but mostly read the reddit version, r/backyardchickens

I had to make an account when I was mentioned though.

 

[Bullitt]

Yeah it really depends on how you look at things. I'm just some dude who's trying to build a home stead, a new life for himself. I decided to try hatching out some chicken eggs. I had some of my own eggs but the incubator I borrowed held 36, so I went over to the neighbors chicken farm and gathered up 'rogue' eggs from around the place. Those don't get eaten because you don't know how old they are or if they've been partially sat on.

So one of those eggs, a little blueish egg (like an americauna) would lay was mixed in there. Turns out it was a duck egg. I can now tell the two apart, but they look very similar at a glance.

So the friend I borrowed the incubator from forgot to tell me I needed to put water in it for humidity, and because I was super busy working on my house, I failed to read up on the subject at the time. So all of the eggs failed, except ONE. That one egg. And out came a duck.

So I brought my duckling home, I had the incubator at a friends place who has more stable temps. I sat on my bed/couch thing and put a towel down, put the little peeps on my lap and took some pics. After about 2 minutes of checking things out, the little peeps looked up at me, went PEEP PEEP PEEP! and ran up my chest, squirmed up under my beard, and snuggled in for a nap.

So every day I'd get the peeps out of its cage and let em play on my lap with a towel of course, then tuck a towel up under my chin/shirt (ducks poo a lot), and i'd just fool around online, play a video game, watch tv,whatever and little peeps would just go to sleep under my chin and peep softly.

As cute as it is, peeps is a spaz monkey and spends as much time being cute and cuddly as he/she does running around in circles screaming like a banshee and knocking **** over

I've poked my head in a few times on this forum, but mostly read the reddit version, r/backyardchickens

I had to make an account when I was mentioned though.

Where are you living?

Did you ever get chicken eggs to hatch?

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

The news could care less about the duck... They fear the beard......

 

[Spongiform]

Where are you living?

Did you ever get chicken eggs to hatch?

SE Ohio. I built my own incubator and provided nothing goes wrong, I should have some peeps any day now. Day 21 will be this coming tuesday. 15 or so chicken eggs and 3 ducks. Those shouldn't hit till day 28 though.

I have a photojournalist flying out to interview me about peeps. It's insane but hey, whatever. I just roll with things. Maybe if I'm lucky they will hatch out while she's here.

 

[Spongiform]

The news could care less about the duck... They fear the beard......

The neighborhood kids don't think it's scary, I asked them once. Apparently it's more like a teddy bear then a scary bear.

I was like "nooo, it's scary, rawr!"

 

[Bullitt]

SE Ohio. I built my own incubator and provided nothing goes wrong, I should have some peeps any day now. Day 21 will be this coming tuesday. 15 or so chicken eggs and 3 ducks. Those shouldn't hit till day 28 though.

I have a photojournalist flying out to interview me about peeps. It's insane but hey, whatever. I just roll with things. Maybe if I'm lucky they will hatch out while she's here.

Yeah, hopefully the chicks hatch before the reporter arrives. That would work out well.

It's amazing how much attention you are getting just from posting some pictures on the Internet. Maybe you can get some corporate endorsements from feed companies or something.

 

[Spongiform]

Yeah, hopefully the chicks hatch before the reporter arrives. That would work out well.

It's amazing how much attention you are getting just from posting some pictures on the Internet. Maybe you can get some corporate endorsements from feed companies or something.

Yeah, I feel guilty about even thinking about profiting from it, but at the same time. I am very poor. Don't feel bad for me or anything. It's by choice. I'm not in debt. I don't own a whole lot of stuff, but I keep my cost of living to next to nothing and before long it'll be a negative number (mmmm, solar). At the same time, a quick small injection of a bit of money would help speed up my homesteading process, so I won't turn it down. $5k would finish my house, pond and solar setups

At the rate things are going I'll be producing a couple times my food bill in value by growing/raising/hunting for my own food. I can't and don't want to try to be 100% self sufficient, in that there's no outside input. That's where a community comes into play. I can grow say, 500lbs of jalapenos and trade/sell 400lbs of them. Keep the rest to eat/make stuff with. Mmm, salsa.

It's looking like I may have a side job of raising poultry, but it won't be a huge thing. I want maybe, 20 birds tops. 10 chickens, couple guineas, couple ducks, couple turkeys. Sell the eggs/hatchings and have enough eggs for myself to eat them all the time.

Not super interested in raising meat birds, but my friend raises boilers/fryers, so I can just trade, jalapenos or whatever for organic free range chicken

 

[Bullitt]

Yeah, I feel guilty about even thinking about profiting from it, but at the same time. I am very poor. Don't feel bad for me or anything. It's by choice. I'm not in debt. I don't own a whole lot of stuff, but I keep my cost of living to next to nothing and before long it'll be a negative number (mmmm, solar). At the same time, a quick small injection of a bit of money would help speed up my homesteading process, so I won't turn it down. $5k would finish my house, pond and solar setups

At the rate things are going I'll be producing a couple times my food bill in value by growing/raising/hunting for my own food. I can't and don't want to try to be 100% self sufficient, in that there's no outside input. That's where a community comes into play. I can grow say, 500lbs of jalapenos and trade/sell 400lbs of them. Keep the rest to eat/make stuff with. Mmm, salsa.

It's looking like I may have a side job of raising poultry, but it won't be a huge thing. I want maybe, 20 birds tops. 10 chickens, couple guineas, couple ducks, couple turkeys. Sell the eggs/hatchings and have enough eggs for myself to eat them all the time.

Not super interested in raising meat birds, but my friend raises boilers/fryers, so I can just trade, jalapenos or whatever for organic free range chicken

It seems you have it all planned out.

How much solar power do have right now? Is it an on-grid system or off-grid system?

 

[Spongiform]

It seems you have it all planned out.

How much solar power do have right now? Is it an on-grid system or off-grid system?

I have none, I need to finish building my house first. It's stopped for winter. I'm building a 32' diameter (interior dimension) earthbag round-house. That's about 800 sq feet per floor and i'm aiming for 3 floors. A 2 story wall + a domed roof for the third floor. Hardened earthen first floor (kind of like adobe), with in-floor heating! Upper floors i'm planning to do hardwood, probably oak but depends on what my local sawmills have when the time comes. It's super cheap if you buy direct from a local sawmill, runs like 50 cents a board-foot. At 1/2" thick pieces, + tongue and grove and planning, about 55 cents/square foot if I remember right. So $800 will do both floors. Plus whatever I spend on fasteners, sealant etc.

Based on my current usage and location, I need about a 2kw solar system to break even. Once I'm in my house I'll be switching to wood for heat, using a rocket-stove mass heater. So that's a good chunk less electricity,but I'll also have a washer, dryer, more lights, dish washer, hot water heater etc. so I suspect my needs will go up, overall. I'll be doing it modularly, adding them in sections of 240 watt panels with a 215 watt micro-inverter most likely. Just adding them as I can afford them in small chunks.

 

[Bullitt]

I have none, I need to finish building my house first. It's stopped for winter. I'm building a 32' diameter (interior dimension) earthbag round-house. That's about 800 sq feet per floor and i'm aiming for 3 floors. A 2 story wall + a domed roof for the third floor. Hardened earthen first floor (kind of like adobe), with in-floor heating! Upper floors i'm planning to do hardwood, probably oak but depends on what my local sawmills have when the time comes. It's super cheap if you buy direct from a local sawmill, runs like 50 cents a board-foot. At 1/2" thick pieces, + tongue and grove and planning, about 55 cents/square foot if I remember right. So $800 will do both floors. Plus whatever I spend on fasteners, sealant etc.

Based on my current usage and location, I need about a 2kw solar system to break even. Once I'm in my house I'll be switching to wood for heat, using a rocket-stove mass heater. So that's a good chunk less electricity,but I'll also have a washer, dryer, more lights, dish washer, hot water heater etc. so I suspect my needs will go up, overall. I'll be doing it modularly, adding them in sections of 240 watt panels with a 215 watt micro-inverter most likely. Just adding them as I can afford them in small chunks.

I have seen those rocket stoves on YouTube. It uses the hot smoke to warm up the walls and seats, and the heat is retained. It seems to work well.

You should check out Solar Cabin on YouTube for information on setting up a simple solar system. Since you are using wood for heat, you should be able to power everything with less than a 2,000-watt solar system. It is heating and cooling that uses most of the electricity. The guy with the Solar Cabin channel uses wood for heat and some propane for his stove and on-demand water heater, and his solar power system is only about 600 watts to run his refrigerator, lights, TV, computer, etc.

Some states allow a person to sell electricity that they put back into the grid. This is the simplest way since all you need are solar panels and a grid-tie inverter for an on-grid system. If you produce enough electricity your utility company will pay you.