Death of a duck

When I picked up the Pekins I could tell that one was a lot small than the other. That was supposed to be because he was standard and she was a jumbo. As they grew I was not so sure, but it was clear that the little male had hip/feet issues. He would sometimes fall on his back and be unable to turn over. As we moved them outside this happened less frequently and we were hoping that the exercise and the sun would help him. Weak legs are usually caused by a low temp in an incubator (causing the last things to develop aka the legs to not fully develop and thus causing weak legs) so I'm assuming that is what must have happened.

When we moved them outside the geese saw both the baby pekins as their children (though at first they tried to shoo them away), adopted ugly(to a goose) children, but their children non the less. They would devote their time to the pekins and bring them food, teach them how to search for food, swim, and clean themselves. In short, the geese were very attached to their pekins.

Today I came home to find that the male pekin was dead, on his back near the pond. My only guess is that he got flipped over and was unable to turn back around and died of dehydration/exposure to high temps. I knew something was wrong because all the geese were surrounding the pekin and had their heads hung low. They didn't make a sound or come over to greet. They just mourned. I approached and they came over slowly and quietly. They led me to the pekin and surrounded him and tried to cover him with their outstretched wings. I'm not usually a sentimental person but to see the geese mourn for their adopted child made me sad. When they were done they stepped back and I walked in and picked him up. I could not bring him in since I did not know how long he had been dead and I wanted to make sure he did not die in vain. I placed him under the dead sycamore so that his body can feed the next tree that we plant there. The geese walked with me as I placed his body in the hole. I put the tree back over him and could only tell the geese I was sorry for their loss.