Update on Optimus Maximus

Oh, I couldn't help it. Optimus Maximus is so beautiful I had to make a print of him. It was interesting to make a woodcut instead of a wood engraving. The softness of the Japanese plywood is certainly a rest to the arm, writs, elbow but on the other hand it is not possible to make the details that an engraving allows.

Optimus Maximus has been with us almost a week and the chickens are still not impressed with his beauty and gallantry. It is very painful to watch how they still bully him the whole day. Today I had to put Chabela in jail, she is horrible to him. I should't intervene in the process of the pecking order, but he needs a rest sometimes, methinks.

On the other hand I know that it's the first time the hens see a cockerel. They were before in a bloody battery farm with millions of other hens, and then here on their own. So they are just defending their little world from intruders.

Alas, spring is coming and nature will take charge, I'm sure soon when he starts doing his coock a doodle doo and grows taller they will fight among themselves to be the mother of his chicks.