I mentioned in several places that all my peas are hens (well, maybe one of the whites is a male) and so I decided that the girls needed a boyfriend. Enter Dr. Aziz. He comes from the same farm as the girls and I picked him up yesterday.
I think yesterday was possibly the worst day of Aziz's life. He was taken from the place he was hatched and put in a cat carrier (a large one, really dog-sized) and driven to an unfamiliar farm and placed in a chicken tractor where a bunch of other birds could gawp at him. The girls were just thrilled to their little topnots (poor Aziz has no topknot--the other male with him in his aviary pulled it out). They stuck their necks out and approached the enclosure slowly, then started to honk and even scream (sort of) which I had not heard them do before. Obviously they were excited to see another of their own kind.
Towards dusk I decided to put Aziz in the barn; he was panicking as I tried to grab him and got away and flew off to the hay field. My heart sank as I realized I would probably never see him again. But I spotted him in the hayfield and sneaked up on him--fortunately he did not fly to a tree (and there are none--that helps!) and after one miss I was able to pounce on him and I carried him back to the barn and placed him on the hay, where he stayed--poor thing was probably in shock from the worst day of his life so far. I closed up the barn and I hoped that in the morning he would be cheered by the sight of his five houris.
This morning I heard ruckus as I approached the barn, honking and screaming. Aziz was up in the rafters with the girls. He flew to the same rafter as one of them; they perched right next to each other. One of the whites flew down--I am beginning to suspect that one is a male. Sometimes the spurs take a long time to grow and he does seem bigger than the other white.
My hope is that Aziz, who is not used to being-free range, will stay with his new friends. I hope he doesn't fly off and take the others with him. Gene (the guy whom I got them from) advised keeping him confined for month or so. But I am gambing on the fact that as gregarious animals they will stick together and that the majority will rule. After all, if I got a new horse he probably wouldn't run away from my horses. Unless he took them for a joy ride! We shall see...
2 comments:
Oh I'm so excited for you, for Dr. Aziz and especially for the ladies. When I first got a female for Mr. Mel she disappeared into the woods and I thought she was gone for good but she was only gone for a day or so and Mr. Mel's voice called her back. I'll bet (I hope) you are probably right that your guy will want to stick close by his girls. I think Mr. Mel, when he first came, went off on a walkabout for 3 days but he returned, decided these were the greenest pastures, and never left again. Whenever I transported a pea I would put a sock on their head to cover their eyes. They remained totally calm that way until the sock came off. It is so cool to see the birds introduce themselves, they are so curious and sort of polite. I'm happy for you right now. I hope you have some good plans for protecting your garden because remember the peas can fly over any fence.
Dr. Aziz is one very lucky pea and I'm sure he will realize it when the shock wears off. He has his pick of companionship. But will jealousy rear its ugly head among the ladies?
Regarding your post about "what's the point, no one is reading this blog". I for one am reading, and enjoy these snapshots of your life tremendously. I've been preoccupied with health issues recently, but still try to catch up with your blog when I can. Yes, we do need feedback. All regular blog readers should try to comment occasionally or it's like the tree falling in the forest - did anyone hear?
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