From the beginning, we knew there was something special about one of our Pekin Ducks. She could not stand up, her little webbed feet turning in. She scooted around on her hocks and fell on her face. Her blacks eyes would look up at me, as she tried to hobble away. It broke my heart to think she would struggle with the other ducks as they left The Nursery and entered The Aviary.

When the Pekin Ducks first came to The Nursery, they were in large totes. Heat lamps were used for the first week, and once in awhile on super cold nights, temperatures dipping down to 32 degrees.

Quickly all the ducks and the geese went in to a fenced enclosure, with more room to grow feathers out of their soft downy fluff. The Pekin Ducks began to turn from a soft yellow, to snowy white. Except, we had to make a decision about Mikey.

From the moment we noticed she could not walk, there was another duck our oldest daughter named Meep-Meep. When we would clean and water their area, Meep-Meep would come at us, positioning herself between Mikey and us! Meep-Meep was the Guard Duck for Mickey 🙂

When we would enter The Nursery, Meep-Meep would see us and start making the meep meep sounds, thus how she was named. She would even make the sounds when we were unlocking the door, almost as if saying hello! We decided to let Mikey and Meep-Meep stay together in one of the large totes as companions for about a week, then Meep-Meep went in to the fenced enclosure.

This brought up the question of what to do with Mikey? There was a family that took in ducks with leg problems. They already had 3 ducks with the same deformity as Mikey.

One night, as I cleaned her area, I told my husband I had named her Mikey after my brother, Michael, who was handicapped. Michael had passed away right before my husband and I had met. I thought Mikey would be the perfect name whether our duck was male or female.

When I shared my reason for her name, he said Mikey would have her own place to live her life her on our New O’Hana Farm, TN. She lives close to The Aviary, separated by her new friends in The Chicken Coop. The chickens sit by the fence and gently cluck and coo to her. Their sounds reassuring her, as Mikey grows and lives her life at her own pace. You can see our English Bulldog, Daisy Gentle Lee, loves to listen to their sounds. I wonder if she knows what they are saying to one another? :)Jen