Poor pitiful Mable.

Mable is going through a really hard molt and looks terrible!

Just look at her! :( She will be back to her gorgeous self soon, though.

Let me tell you a story:

Once upon a time, we had a rooster named Early and about 10 hens. Early was cool. He had a neat crow. We had him for a number of years.
He was a pretty bird!!

Last year, he started getting pretty mean. He decided he had a vendetta against one of the hens, and he tried to kill her regularly. He chased her into a fence and this hen basically scalped the back of her head. It was pretty nasty. I almost put her down, and was actually told by a popular "chicken chick" (ahem) that it was cruel of me to keep her alive. Anyway......

I nursed her back to health and she healed up just fine. I hoped that a couple weeks apart would make Early forget that he hated her. Itried to keep them apart as much as possible, but it wasnt easy. They free ranged and went in the coop at night. She would spend all day hiding, and I would have to hunt her down at night bc she was too scared to go in the coop. I had to nurse her back to health numerous times. He would flog her whenever he got the chance and I would treat her wounds. He got her on her face the last time and her face was punctured and swollen. He ripped her comb and waddles. I'd had enough. I liked Early, but he had to go. I sold Early and the rest of the hens. I had planned to keep the beat up hen until she was healed up and sell her, but I had grown attached. I named her Mable and she is my "pet chicken" now. :)