Saturday Silliness

I was raised way out in a rural area and my favorite part of growing up was to help my grandfather each morning (4 AM) collect the chicken eggs and muck out the coop. I was a strange child and even had a "pet" chicken named Blackie...long story...but not to get off my purpose, I was watching the local news yesterday when this story caught my eye....

Murder most fowl: Three hens and cockerel named Dude peck fox to death after it breaks into coop

By Luke Salkeld

Last updated at 10:24 AM on 03rd March 2010

Being 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 This 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 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 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 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.'



So the next time you go out to gather eggs or feed you chickens....remember this story...(theme from "Jaws" playing...)