In a series of revealing photos, a Reddit user known as ‘Spongi’ has documented his rearing of an abandoned duckling named “Peeps,” using his beard in place of its mother’s wing.

While unsuccessfully attempting to hatch chicken eggs, Spongi inadvertently came across the duckling – “So my first attempt to hatch out chicken eggs failed, except it turns out one of the eggs in there was a duck egg and apparently duck eggs are more hardy or tolerant of shitty incubation techniques.”

Spongi, also known online as “The Real Duck Commander,” raised Peeps in a bed next to his, though plans to set the bird free, once the weather changes. “Once it’s spring Peeps will be a free range duck,” Spongi wrote, adding, “I’ll provide grains, water and a shelter, but that’s it other than socialization of course. My chickens are practically no work.”

Realizing that Peeps had no one to socialize with, Spongi took matters into his own beard – “So now I had a duckling. A single solitary duckling. Ducks are very social, raising a single duck is basically a death sentence, they will die of loneliness.”

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Spongi explains why he’s added a towel to his beard incubator – “A towel was necessary, peeps poop a lot. “A lot” is an understatement.” Spongi adds a PRO-TIP, “Best time for social interaction is after the food dish has been empty a few hours. Do not feed then socialize, unless you do it outside. You will get pooped on, repeatedly.”

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Spongi also notes that while raising a duck next to your face, “You will get pecked, but it doesn’t hurt. Unless it’s your eyeball. That hurts.”

As of writing, Peeps has grown too large to fit into Spongi’s beard, so the two mostly just hang out and watch TV together. Spongi says that he has a few more duck eggs laying around, and that Peeps will likely have some new duck friends.

Image via Imgur.