A farmer was felling a large dead tree on his land when he inadvertently disturbed a golden eagle’s nest that contained a single egg. The nest fell to the ground but, fortunately, the egg made a soft landing and was still intact. The farmer picked it up, popped it into his pocket and later, delicately placed the egg under a brooding hen. The mother hen adopted the egg as one of her own and eventually the eaglet hatched and grew up alongside the other chickens.

The young eagle learnt how to scratch about in the farmyard for grubs, worms and seeds. He learnt how to cluck like a chicken, ruffle his feathers like a chicken; thrash his wings together and jump into the air like a chicken. The eagle became a chicken… but he knew that he was different. He felt, sort of, special.

Then one day the young eagle looked up into the sky and saw the silhouette of a magnificent bird gracefully soaring and gliding along on the warm air currents. “Wow!” said the young eagle in awe, “What is that?” His mother replied, “That’s a golden eagle; the greatest of all the birds – but, don’t you start getting any ideas, mind: Eagles are meant to soar the heavens whilst chickens like us are meant to scratch about it the dirt!”

The young eagle sighed and then settled back down to pecking about in the farmyard. He ended up living a long, but somewhat secluded life, as a CHICKEN, because that is what he thought he was. That is the life he accepted for himself.