Eesh, Hika Ma needs an attitude adjustment! Jerk cockerel!Well, how about a small update for the week. Hika Ma has ticked me off. He's being a cockerel, I know, but it just ticks me off because as far as I'm concerned, the pullets will 'pay rent' most of their lives and he's a freeloader. He doesn't have the leeway to tick me off. Po baby, he's cute. That gives him leeway (not that he's done anything because he's just the most wonderful little guy I've ever had the pleasure to raise). Hika Ma is not cute. Hika Ma is a jerk.
So you may be wondering what he did by now. Well, the other morning, I moved him out to his dog crate in the little girls' section of the chicken yard. Immediately, he began bashing at the walls after the pullets, who really paid him no attention because he was too far away for them to care. Unfortunately, the waterer was next to Hika Ma's crate so that he could reach through the bars and drink. Well, when Marama went over to get herself a drink, he reached through the bars and grabbed her, and I had to run yelling at him to get him to let go!
To me, that was him volunteering to be the 'canary in the mineshaft', so to speak. We had been discussing putting a bird in with Margaret as the last phase of her quarantine. That way, if Margaret was carrying anything, the other bird would show symptoms, and if my flock was carrying anything, she would show symptoms, too. Also, Margaret has been lonely, and it's just easier to integrate two birds into the flock than it is to integrate just one. Guess who got the job of first exposure? I made sure there was a fence between them that Hika Ma could not reach through, and then I moved him into the garage with Margaret. He was cackling up a storm, and staring at Margaret as if she was some sort of alien creature. (Well, no one in my flock has seen a Silkie before, so...)
Margaret, on the other side, is simply ecstatic! I knew she was lonely by how she was behaving, but now, she is moving around lots, scratching and dustbathing in her shavings, and even playing! Hika Ma, the self-impressed little man he is, stood up tall and flapped his wings impressively, and Margaret, thinking he was playing, was bouncing around her pen like a little maniac--like a young bird should be doing! I'm happy that Margaret is happy! Now, we wait to see if there are any signs of illness, and if not, Margaret joins the flock in one week.
(I will get pictures of the two of them eventually. Margaret has been sitting along the fence next to Hika Ma when she hasn't been playing or scratching.)
I am going to switch to a monthly photo op, because classes start in one week and I'm not sure I'll have the time for a weekly photo op from that point on. However, I'll be sure to update here, with or without pictures, as frequently as possible. 
Anyway, here is the video:
