Nelson, so not a spring chicken, is chicken # 5
Nelson is, I believe, a Rhode Island Red. He was a very good sport about me taking this picture. I actually used a flash, which I rarely do under any circumstances. The next shot in my photostream is without the flash. Do tell me which you prefer.
He has rather an unusual life. He has worked, he told me, since he was young, at a petting zoo in a farm in a suburb. Children there are so removed from, well, everything, that they never see farms. He told me he thinks that mostly, the kids take in the experience as sort of a storybook theme park sort of deal.
"I don't imagine many of them make the connection between seeing me and my wives and my children, and the damned mcnuggets that they will have for lunch. The response we get is much more "Old McDonald" or even "The Farmer in Dell". We get kids clucking at us. We get kids mooing at us, for Pete's sake." He laughed.
He seemed very resigned when he talked about this. He was not, as you can see, a young bird. He's been around the block and has a matter of fact air. I took my shots and thanked him and went to inspect the vegetable gardens. I saw him again before I left, out by the goat shed. He was scratching up a particularly promising patch of roly-poly bugs. He did not remember me, even though we'd had quite a conversation only forty minutes before. I guess he sees a lot of people doing his job.
Nelson is chicken # 5 in my 1000 chickens project. Find out more about the group at www.flickr.com/groups/1000chickens/
Nelson, so not a spring chicken, is chicken # 5
Nelson is, I believe, a Rhode Island Red. He was a very good sport about me taking this picture. I actually used a flash, which I rarely do under any circumstances. The next shot in my photostream is without the flash. Do tell me which you prefer.
He has rather an unusual life. He has worked, he told me, since he was young, at a petting zoo in a farm in a suburb. Children there are so removed from, well, everything, that they never see farms. He told me he thinks that mostly, the kids take in the experience as sort of a storybook theme park sort of deal.
"I don't imagine many of them make the connection between seeing me and my wives and my children, and the damned mcnuggets that they will have for lunch. The response we get is much more "Old McDonald" or even "The Farmer in Dell". We get kids clucking at us. We get kids mooing at us, for Pete's sake." He laughed.
He seemed very resigned when he talked about this. He was not, as you can see, a young bird. He's been around the block and has a matter of fact air. I took my shots and thanked him and went to inspect the vegetable gardens. I saw him again before I left, out by the goat shed. He was scratching up a particularly promising patch of roly-poly bugs. He did not remember me, even though we'd had quite a conversation only forty minutes before. I guess he sees a lot of people doing his job.
Nelson is chicken # 5 in my 1000 chickens project. Find out more about the group at www.flickr.com/groups/1000chickens/