8 ms·
Chickens 'gang up' to kill intruder fox on French farm
- grawprog 8y agoYeah....chickens are assholes. They'll come at you. They'll tear each other up pretty good too. I've seen them go after dogs before. They really are like watching little dinosaurs.
- gatherhunterer 8y agoMy first thought was that they had no idea it was a fox and were just trying to kill something. The reason poultry feed has to be scattered over a wide area is that they will peck through other chickens, killing them in the process, before turning and eating from an open spot if they feel they need to compete for food. Turkeys are worse than chickens. An amish turkey farmer once told me that if you leave a bucket of feed with the turkeys you’ll end up with a bucket of dead, half-eaten turkeys and all of the feed you started with.
- koolba 8y agoYes it’s common to clip their beaks when they’re young to prevent nipping at each other.
- StavrosK 8y agoI understand that they'd kill each other, but why would they all kill each other, who eats them, and who puts the carcasses in the bucket? So many questions this raises...
- gatherhunterer 8y agoThey get into the bucket to get the food and are pecked to death by the one that climbs in on top of them, and so on.
- StavrosK 8y agoOh wow, that's brutal. Thanks for explaining.
- lolc 8y agoIf you've ever watched a chicken hunt mice, you know what mammals went through the last 200 million years.
- chimprich 8y agoI have seen a chicken hunting mice. It's absolutely astounding. Before seeing it in action I had no idea chickens would go after such large prey, or that they would be such efficient hunters. They must have amazing eyesight, or some other ability to detect prey, because they appear to be able to detect hiding rodents from a long way away. This was a local wild chicken that had presumably escaped from a coop, and it appeared to sustain itself on mice all summer.
- freyir 8y agoFor the curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBFXzyp3sks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBFXzyp3sks
- marcotaves 8y agoFor someone who has seen a turtle(!) blazingly fast (need sound effects? It was like Vupt!) catch a pigeon by the neck like a camaleon grabs a mosquito...No surprise...I have see chicken following the "master" by the streets like a dog, no string attached, but the "owner" carries a little stick and sometimes give a little vupt! on the chickens side of the body to keep her on its delimited walking area...No analogies here, please...just a story I tell... The most amazing "bird flock defense" I have seen is that of a group of 30 to 50 scissor-tails , how do you calll.Ah yes...Swallow, almost forgot, how come I almost forgot...memory is shit recently...gosh... Yeas a small Gaviao, maybe is kind of like a small falcon, but very small specie of falcon...but can knock a Swallow down while having siesta and chewing sugarcane at the same time, but...20 swallows diving at high speed and almost touching the falcons head, the falcon just stay there, standing in the roof, ignoring the swallows almost conpletely, ignore, and the swallow only rarely touch his body only when they are sure a reflex of the falcon will no fuck their acrobatical aerial dive, well, not kids play and the swallow does not enjoy and does not do it for fun...Probably there was a nest of baby swallows nearby and the falcon choose a not good place to be standing at that time...but then at some point of 2 swallows almost hit per second, like 50 swallow dives over him every minute, well...he went to stand on some other roof... very interesting...maybe more then 30 years ago...dont remember well... thanks...
- btilly 8y agoThe worst that I ever saw was one chicken deliberately scaring another chicken into an oncoming car, then rushing in to eat the victim's guts. I saw this 2 months ago in Thailand.
- ekianjo 8y agoHow do you know it was deliberate?
- vezycash 8y agoCrows are known to drop nuts on highways for cars to crack em up. They've also learned to read traffic lights to know when it's safe to pick up their bounty. However, chickens aren't known to be planners.
- btilly 8y agoI couldn't read the chicken's mind. But it waited a good long time for a car to come down that road before doing its thing. I would have had trouble believing it to be a lucky (for it) accident.
- mruts 8y agoThat's a pretty good strat, I guess.
- lostlogin 8y agoThey can get really savage if they see blood. Watching someone in jandals with red nail polish go near some was quite the scene.
- mehrdadn 8y agoConfused at why comments like this get downvoted. What does that signify?
- mfoy_ 8y agoChickens have this weird "IT'S BLEEDING. MURDER IT!" kinda vibe. There's literally rose-tinted glasses you can glue onto their beaks so they can't really perceive red. This prevents them from pecking each-other to death. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_eyeglasses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_eyeglasses
- bluedino 8y agoGeese will do a pretty good number on a kid. 'Biting', honking, my grandmother had a few geese when we were growing up and I got attacked a few times coming in the drive, and my younger brother was absolutely terrified of them
- grawprog 8y agoAlso, geese hiss....there's something about things that hiss at you. One of the more harrowing things i've done was a day addling geese eggs on a lake where they're overpopulated. There was two of us.in the canoe. Whenever we found a nest we'd switch duties between sneaking up to the nest to do the egg addling, while the other stood guard with a paddle to ward off the attacking geese.
- marcotaves 8y agoI really dont understand that way of clotroling overpopulation... lack of creativity, maybe, to Think another way... tremember me of South Park cartoon scene, where they swoosh! Bison in the prairies with Second world war style Flametrowers! yes...flamethrowers haha , to control the overpopulation of Bisons in the prairies...burn them all like the Mad King of game of thrones...people are so crazy, even good people make uncomprehensibly sounding shit... well...learning everyday a little more... I learn... thanks
- gadders 8y agoWhen we bought our first four geese, we had one gander that was just mean like you occasionally get with a rooster. He managed to chase my daughter's friend and scratch the back of her leg with his claws. (Geese have surprisingly sharp claws at the end of their webbed feet).
- RussianCow 8y agoWhen I was two, my family took me to my grandma's farm, where she had all kinds of animals, including chickens. As a curious two-year-old, I ran up to the chicken pen to take a look, and a rooster lunged at me aggressively. Luckily there was wire between us, so no harm done, but it scared me so much that I had nightmares about that rooster for the next ten years. We had that rooster for dinner that night, so he got what he deserved. :)
- mehrdadn 8y agoOuch! Sounds more like you had him for dinner and he got his revenge by haunting you for 10 years...
- RussianCow 8y agoHa! I never thought of it that way! Yes maybe it was karma but not against the rooster.
- Insanity 8y agoSpeaking of them being assholes, won't they also pick at their _own_ eggs?
- vezycash 8y agoThey do. That's why collection is done early and throughout the day. Battery cages are slightly sloped so that eggs roll out of the cage, out of reach of the birds and for easy egg collection by workers.
- sushisushisushi 8y ago"These animals I've imprisoned to exploit for my own ends are assholes"
- bryanrasmussen 8y agoI'd heard you weren't supposed to let the fox into the henhouse, but I had envisioned a different outcome.
- laylomo2 8y agoThe fox should have used the master sword.
- bovermyer 8y agoAs Link has discovered time and time again, never piss off the chickens.
- itsthecourier 8y agoyour comment is underappreciated
- exhilaration 8y agoThe community I live in has a chicken coop - our first small batch was decimated by a single fox, one a single night, when the door was left open. It took only one chicken back to eat but it killed 6 others - 6 docile, happy chickens. That's what foxes (normally) do to chicken coops.
- kylegordon 8y agoStandard frenzy behaviour for a fox. It's pointless to anthropomorphize them, as it's just natural for them to kill now with the intent of coming back to collect the bodies for later consumption. Just like your average labrador will inhale food until it's too large to walk. Binging is a natural instinct in feast or famine capable animals.
- ekianjo 8y agoBased on my experience cats tend to overeat a lot more than dogs.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jonlucc 8y agoIt really depends on the specific animal, but common wisdom is that you can't just leave a bowl of food out for a dog. Cats on the other hand often are free-feeders (leave out a big bowl of food and refill it on a schedule). Of our 2 cats, one will eat until she vomits and one will barely touch food if it's out at the wrong time.
- pxc 8y agoIt depends a lot on the dog— what I've seen with dogs is similar to what you describe with your cats. There are 4 dogs in my house, one belonging to me and three belonging to my roommate. Mine won't really overeat unless she's offered a lot of something extremely appealing (like human food). At least 2 of my roommate's dogs will eat until they make themselves sick, though. The last one, I'm not sure.
- mirceal 8y agothis reminds me out using all my SCVs to defend against Zealots in early game.
- mirceal 8y agoI see we have some Protoss among us here on HN :)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- simonsarris 8y agoThis is called mobbing and birds are most famously known to do it, I'm kind of surprised they don't mention the behavior by name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobbing_(animal_behavior) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobbing_(animal_behavior)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- chrisfinazzo 8y agohttps://twitter.com/siracusa/status/1105801186878345218 https://twitter.com/siracusa/status/1105801186878345218
- frosted-flakes 8y agoAnyone who's attacked a chicken in The Legend of Zelda can attest to this behaviour.
- BurningFrog 8y ago3000 chickens vs a not full grown fox. Sounds like a zombie movie type of fight.
- rbanffy 8y agoAn Aardman zombie movie.
- negamax 8y agoI read chicken coop and chicken coup automagically until reading the comments! How much context guessing happens in our brains!
- maxxxxx 8y agoI always find it interesting that a lot of prey animals sometimes fight back with success but they don’t seem to repeat that behavior next time. I have seen videos of zebras going after a lion without problem but next time they will just run away again and the slowest will get killed.
- sornaensis 8y agoSome kind of result of co-evolving? Predators thinning out weaker members of the herd keeps the overall health of the herd up. Just some quick speculation.
- agumonkey 8y agomaybe a hormonal variable at play, anybody can fight when enraged, even if on average they might flee
- simonh 8y agoI suspect it very much depends on the initial conditions. A Zebra that decides to try to scare off the Lion, but isn't backed up by the rest of the herd, or isn't backed up by enough of them quickly enough, is dead meat. The problem is their ability to communicate with each other and co-ordinate is too limited.
- maxxxxx 8y ago" A Zebra that decides to try to scare off the Lion, but isn't backed up by the rest of the herd, or isn't backed up by enough of them quickly enough, is dead meat. " Not necessarily true. An injury by a kick is a huge problem for the predator so they often shy away if the animal fights back. I have seen plenty of videos where single zebras or deer chased a predator away. Obviously this changes if there are several predators.
- simonh 8y agoThe trouble is Lions generally hunt as a pack.
- 8y ago
- belorn 8y agoChickens are omnivores and will kill and happily eat other animals when they can. A fact that is very clear in regard to rodents that like to steal chicken feed. That they managed to kill a juvenile fox is a bit impressive however.
- mattigames 8y agoThey didn't eat the fox (as far as I read).
- HeyLaughingBoy 8y agoThis is exactly why commercials that claim "we feed our chickens a 100% vegetarian diet" irritate the crap out of me. Chickens will eat anything that fits into their beak and sometimes things that won't. e.g., young frogs, small snakes, etc.
- dman 8y agoAm I the only one who thought of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Run https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Run when they read this article?
- mykowebhn 8y agoAfter reading many of the comments here, I sort of understand the need to make chickens seem like monsters. Sometimes they can be quite mean. However, I've known many chickens and their personalities are really quite diverse. Most chickens, when raised humanely, as pets, are quite docile and friendly, even some of the roosters I've known.
- cal5k 8y agoIn my mind I replaced "chicken" with "developer" and had a good chuckle.
- mykowebhn 8y agoReminds me of this developer we were interviewing once. He asked if we treat our developers like mushrooms. I asked what he meant by that. He said do you keep them in the dark and feed them sh*t? He didn't get the job.
- gibolt 8y agoSo the answer was yes?
- hrktb 8y agoTBF I interviewed companies where floors were mildy dark, people packed, and the air moisty. That was just not a place to keep workers 8 hours a day. If I was more witty I’d precisely ask that question at the end of the interview.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- monsieurbanana 8y agoEither he's socially handicapped, or the company really needs to improve it's working environment. Fifty fifty really.
- tonyarkles 8y ago
- doubleunplussed 8y agoSomeone didn't play enough Zelda
- bredren 8y agoThis reminds me of the cat that saved the boy from the dog. https://youtu.be/ftIRIPcsqxo https://youtu.be/ftIRIPcsqxo
- magduf 8y agoI love that video. The comments are great too, and they're right: cats are much better pets than dogs. When was the last time you heard of a cat attacking and killing someone (especially a child)? It happens with dogs all the time. Dog apologists will always spout some BS about "those dogs weren't raised right", but it just doesn't happen with cats.
- icebraining 8y agoI'm a cats-over-dogs person, but cats can definitively attack people. Killing is probably quite rare, but then again they don't have the size and strength of a pit bull or rottweiler. Yorkshire terriers probably haven't killed many persons either.
- magduf 8y agoI can't say I've ever heard of a cat attacking a person without some kind of reason. Cats, even the most ill-mannered ones, just aren't known to be aggressive towards humans the way dogs are. The only times I've heard of cats attacking people is when they've been tormented, such as by children.
- bredren 8y agoI'm so cat positive, I'm like a cat lady. But sometimes cats get aggressive and attack people for sure. Even non-tormented ones. It does matter how you treat them and how much you play with them but make no mistake cats will attack, sometimes viscously.
- icebraining 8y agoI've had it happen to myself and a family member. If the cat was frightened, there was no obvious reason why. We didn't live there, but it wasn't the first time we visited the house. We didn't harm her, but had to close her in a room.
- vprasanth 8y agoClever girl
- wnevets 8y agoSomeone invented red colored chicken tinted to stop chickens from killing other chickens who happen to be bleeding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_eyeglasses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_eyeglasses
- newsgremlin 8y agoPower to the (chicken) people.
- DiseasedBadger 8y agoI support this haha. I once lost 6 chickens and a turkey to either a bobcat or a coyote. All in one night. I support research into re-activating latent dinosaur genes in chickens.
- Kurtz79 8y agoThey have nothing on Japanese bees though: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2174097-honeybees-gang-up-to-roast-invading-hornets-alive-at-a-terrible-cost/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2174097-honeybees-gang-...
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoEuropean honeybees do this too (source: am beekeeper)
- itissid 8y agoTheir species murder rate is 100%. Can you blame them.
- Darkforest3 8y agoSome say chickens are one of the most abundant vertebrate on the planet (20B+). Let's just hope they don't gang up on us!
- newaccoutnas 8y agoA new idea for a Hitchcock film...
- rbanffy 8y agoAardman Animation will probably do it.
- madengr 8y agoSounds like a new torture method: Death by a Thousand Chickens.
- meowface 8y agoTo be clear, this was one young fox vs. 3,000 chickens, trapped with them in a coop due to an auto-closing door. There was no way that fox was getting out alive.