Hi there, Dirary.

I’ve never done this before, so forgive me if I get it wrong.

Well, my feathers are starting to grow back, slowly.
You see, Arthur was a really, really rough guy, and he would spur me, and peck me, and pin me to the floor with all his weight. He was 3x bigger than me, so I didn’t stand a chance.

Let me tell you about Arthur.

Tilly and I were with 3 other hens, and Arthur. Then the human here lost her cockerel, and the human we were with offered Arthur and 2 hens.
Those two hens turned out to me Tilly and I.
So off we went in a big box. I laid an egg in there, because I had to. There was nowhere else to go.
Anyway, we arrived and it was cold and wet, with white stuff on the ground. We were put in a small pen with Arthur, and I swear he pinned me down no less than six times. 

There were three other hens already, and they were circling the pen. One of them was always making googly eyes at Arthur, and I thought hon, you’re welcome to him.
Then the new human let us out, and Arthur — the cheat — went off with the one who was making googly eyes. The other two were picking on Tilly and me, real bad. Arthur stopped the pecking at first, but then he took the other three as his favorites and didn’t care anymore about Tilly and me.

The human was really nice tho, we got lots of treats.
At first it was hell going in the coop at night. Hennifer “Googly Eyes” Lopez would kick me and Tilly out or just peck us real bad.
I actually went to sleep in a cat crate to avoid her, but the human made me go in the coop anyway.

Every day Arthur would pin me a few times. Tilly managed to get away more often, but my back and wings were really suffering. My feathers break really easy.

So after a few weeks things settled down a bit, but Arthur was attacking the human and her guest. She whacked him with a stick once or twice when he made a hole in her leg. He was more careful after that.

Well, one morning we were out feasting on bugs, when a fox came and took Olive. (Why couldn’t he have taken Hennifer? She’s still mean. Olive was nice to us.) Arthur saw it and attacked the fox. He fought hard, and a long time, but… 
The fox won.
No more Arthur.

The day after, this new chap arrived. He’s still very young, but he’s nothing like Arthur. He’s nice!
He tells us when there’s nice food somewhere, and he’s not taking a bite until we’re done. Unlike Arthur, who was a greedy pig and who always hoovered up anything edible.
Beaker even brought me Spaghetti when I was pushed aside by Hennifer.

I’m happy now. There is always food, there are bugs, there are nice places to take a dust bath, and we get treats about once or twice a day. Even my eggs have improved, they aren’t thin shelled anymore, but nice and firm.

So there you have it. We’re pretty good now, especially now that Arthur is gone.

Molly