Chickens in a school farm in north-western France are believed to have grouped and killed a juvenile fox, reports BBC News.
The unusual incident in Brittany took place after the fox entered the coop with 3,000 hens through an automatic hatch door which closed immediately.
"There was a herd instinct and they attacked him with their beaks," said Pascal Daniel, head of farming at the agricultural school Gros-Chêne.
The body of the small fox was found the following day in a corner of the coop.
"It had blows to its neck, blows from beaks," Mr Daniel told news agency AFP.
The farm is home to up to 6,000 free-range chickens who are kept in a five-acre site.