Early this morning I ran traps arrange in a straight line from house with dogs accompanying me. We were near end of trap line when a hen (mostly Aseel) started going crazy. I turned around to see a fox right outside her pen sniffing at ground. Dogs were already sprinting there as could see fox. They ran fox off first by sight before coming back to track where fox had been. Hen had seven chicks 15 minutes prior, but none were visible as I approached. My son helped me look, but still no chicks. I began looking in taller grass finding no chicks. My son got distraught so I told him to release hen. She was not clucking, rather giving alarm sounds. Immediately after hen started clucking, chicks started popping out of the vary same areas we looked and the ran through us and dogs to get back to mother. The chicks scattered and hid very well almost in plain sight. The mother gave a vocalization stimulating the response. The hen was distracting fox and apparently prepared to attack it through the pen wall. Brave, but ultimately stupid if dogs and us did not intervene. She may have bought chicks time by the distraction. Lost only one chick.
