Freddy & Solitary Lady Friend

Freddy chilling with lady friend

No eggs since the last chicken got taken and killed by a dog, and we only have Freddy now with his single companion.  He has been very quiet lately, spending a lot of time in the very spacious chicken coop.  He seems to be very fearful of any little thing nowadays, and so is The Only Hen Left Standing.  In the image above taken today, you can see Freddy sunning himself.  

Below Freddy having a quiet moment.  All his moments are quiet nowadays, and he only crows in the morning, but not as vociferously as he used to, pre all his beloved chickens disappearing....

Freddy having a quiet moment

We intend to get some new companions for him soon....then hopefully he will cheer up a bit!

A Sad Day - One more chicken killed, by a dog

Just a short while ago, a local farmer's dog came and grabbed one of  the Last Three Chickens Standing and it is now well and truly dead in the field.  I heard a great commotion and saw a huge black dog go flying past the kitchen with what looked like a chicken in its mouth. We rushed out but the dog had disappeared round the corner.  The master came up and immediately apologised profusely and offered to pay for another chicken. He was picking olives in the field opposite our house. He then put a lead on his dog and left again very apologetic.

Upon a quick inspection of the land, I saw the poor deceased chicken in the field below, with its legs in the air, head tucked under its body.  I got closer and pronounced it dead, feeling very sad as she was a nice gentle creature, and a very good layer.

Sadly no more freshly laid eggs in the near future.  I feel very upset indeed.  From Freddy + 6 chickens, we now only have Freddy + 1 chicken!!!!

I just found poor Freddy and his +1 cowering in fear behind the barn. 

These tragic incidences have all happened in the space of a couple of weeks.

2 More Chickens Gone!

Freddy and his deplenshed retinue of followers having fun amongst all the chopped wood....

We have not been having much luck recently with the number of chickens simply disappearing into thin air.  Two more have vanished in the past few days, and no feathers or anything this time to give us a clue as to what happened to them.

Freddy now only has a very small number of chickens following him around - down to two, from the six he had only a little while back.

We plan to replenish our stock of chickens in a few weeks' time. We only get one egg a day now, which is not good....

Below you can see Mini Me contemplating life in Abruzzo..

A lot of work recently cutting wood for winter time.