This is J.E.B., which is short for Jolene Elizabeth Bennett, and she’s our new addition. She came to us by way of a toothless farmer at a Tractor Supply chicken swap. He saw me looking at her, and he remarked on how the rooster “wouldn’t get off her.”

“Damn chicken rape,” I muttered. And, knowing a bleeding heart when he saw one, he said “I’ll give her to ya, if ya want her. She ain’t a real pretty thang, but she’s a real good layer and I hate to see her git keeled by that bastard. Do you free-range yours?”

“Yes, but I put them up at night,” I responded, still staring at her featherless wings and back.

“Well then, either she’ll die by the rooster, or die free-ranging and happy.”

Before I knew it, he was putting her in a box head first, telling me to keep her separated from my flock for a few days. “Chickens are mean when you git a new one.”

Yes, they are. She came here a month ago, and we turned a big corner this morning. When they were all eating their scratch, only one chicken pecked at Jolene while she was eating, which is a huge improvement.

Saying that she’s a good chicken is cheap, easy praise for a free, featherless chicken. She’s diligent, energetic, curious, and very sweet, once you catch her. She reminds me of a turkey vulture, but in a more regal way, and every morning, when she flies out of the coop toward the food bowl, she lets me pet her and as I tell her that she’s a pretty girl, she looks up at me, almost like she’s starting to believe it.