/ 15 March 2019

Trespassing fox henpecked to death

The last time a fox visited one of the school’s chicken coops
The last time a fox visited one of the school’s chicken coops, more than a year ago, it turned out much worse for the hens (Madelene Cronjé)

Chickens on a poultry farm in northeast France are suspected of killing a fox that tried to sneak into their coop.

The young predator is thought to have entered the henhouse at an agricultural school at dusk last week. It seems it got trapped inside by light-controlled hatch doors that automatically close when the sun goes down.

Students at Le Gros Chêne school in Brittany discovered the body of the animal when making their rounds to check on the chickens the following morning.

“There, in the corner, we found this dead fox,” said Pascal Daniel, head of farming at the school.

“There was a herd instinct and they attacked him with their beaks.”

The school’s free-range, organic farm has a chicken coop that is open all day, and the hens spend most of the daytime outside unless they are laying eggs.

“The last time a fox visited one of the school’s chicken coops, more than a year ago, it turned out much worse for the hens,” said Daniel.