Dude the cockerel was the ringleader who turned the tables on a sly fox who broke into his coupBeing chickens, they probably didn't put too much thought into it.
But somehow a flock of four birds managed to kill a fox that had slunk into their pen hoping to gobble them up.
Their owner Michelle Cordell, 43, had the shock of her life when she went to collect the eggs on the weekend and instead found a heavily pecked pile of fur lying dead in the corner.
She said: 'I was shocked. When I opened up the door, the chickens came running out, happy as anything.
'I went inside and the fox was laying there. I've never heard of anything like this before. It's like revenge of the chickens.'
The family, of Basildon, Essex, have in the past lost a hen and a cockerel to foxes, so are well aware of the danger the animals pose.
And so, it seems, are their chickens.
The bloody aftermath after the chickens pecked the fox to deathThis time, the marauder was a relatively young fox - and no match for the new cockerel Dude and his hens Izzy, Pongo and Pecky.
Miss Cordell has no doubt it is Dude who was the ringleader in the murder.
She said she had shut the sliding door of the coop when she put the chickens to bed on Friday night, but the fox must have nosed his way under. When she went out on Saturday morning, the door was still shut.
The little table in the corner of the coop, which the chickens perch on, had been kicked over and was lying next to the fox's head.
It appeared to have fallen on him and knocked him out, leaving him an easy target for the beaks of the chickens.
Miss Cordell said she thinks they finished off the young fox with pecking as 'it had little blood marks on its legs. It had not been dead long'.
The dead fox was knocked out by a table before being pecked to deathThe table falling down could have been part of an elaborate plot hatched by the brood - but was more likely the lucky result of frantic squawking,flapping and running about.
Miss Cordell, who lives with partner Gary Howell, 45, and daughters Maddi, eight, and Ruby 13, began keeping chickens last summer because Maddi begged her to.
They lost their first two before Christmas, and were left with just Dude and Izzy, both a speckled variety.
Pongo and Pecky, both Rhode Island Reds, joined them a month ago.
'The fox was not a cub but it was only a young one and Dude and Izzy are big birds,' she said.
'It looks like the fox bit off more than he could chew this time.
'I reared Dude from a tiny little chick and he has become very protective of the others.
'He thinks he is human and chases our dogs around the garden, pecking them.
'Now he is a murderer.'
source: dailymail
Posts
