Online Hide and Seek With Friends: Fox in the Henhouse

You're crouched in a bush with two eggs. The fox is sniffing right outside. Your stress climbs, and climbs, and then you fart. Fox in the Henhouse is Pecking Order's free online hide and seek game for 4 to 20 friends: foxes hunt, chickens hide and sneak eggs home, and everyone gets a turn as the fox.

It's the mode that turns a quiet group into a room full of people whispering "don't you dare" at their screens. It runs in any browser, nobody installs a thing, and the rules take about one round to learn. The rest of the game is in the complete Pecking Order guide.

How does Fox in the Henhouse work?

It's a farm at night. A few foxes against a whole flock of chickens.

• The chickens sneak eggs into the henhouse, 2 for every chicken by default, before time runs out.
• The foxes catch as many chickens as they can before the eggs are home.
• The clock: 3 minutes a round by default. Hosts can pick 2, 3 or 4.
• Turns: everyone gets a go as the fox, and the match is scored on points.
• The farm: hosts pick a wide SIDEWAYS farm, a TALL one, or EITHER.

How many foxes you get depends on the room:

How do you hide from the fox?

Bushes are your best friend, and your worst enemy. Step into one and you vanish. A fox can only catch a hidden chicken with a POUNCE, so it has to guess which bush you're in, and a wrong guess wastes precious time.

The problem is your nerves. When a fox prowls nearby, your stress builds and builds until you FART and give yourself away. A green puff drifting out of a bush is the most guilty thing in gaming. Honking in a bush is just as bad, so keep your beak shut.

Eggs are a gamble. You can carry up to 3 at once, but each one slows you down, and a greedy chicken is a caught chicken. The henhouse is safe, but only for 3 seconds at a time, so no camping.

Chickens can roll a few powers from eggs here, and only these: Zap, Shell, Jetpack, Bubblegum and Pray. Pray turns up more often when the chickens are losing, which is nice of it.

What can the fox do?

Foxes can't fly, which changes everything. To make up for it, they get some tricks:

• Speed: foxes run 1.45 times as fast as a chicken and can jump from the ground.
• POUNCE: the only way to grab a chicken hiding in a bush.
• HOWL: stand still and howl, and nearby chickens drop their eggs in fright. It recharges every 12 seconds.
• SNIFF: every 12 seconds, a scent trail points you toward the nearest chickens.

At the start the foxes wait 5 seconds in their den, so the chickens get a head start. Foxes are too wide for CHICKEN HOLES, which makes those holes the best escape routes on the farm. A fox's eggs only ever hold Pray, and only while the foxes are losing.

Can chickens fight back?

Oh yes, and it's the best part. Stomp a fox and it's dizzy for about a second. Two stomps within 3 seconds is a GANG STOMP!, and the fox is knocked silly for 3 whole seconds. Two brave chickens can turn the whole hunt around, and the fox will never live it down.

Then there are DECOYS. Grab one and drop a lifelike copy of yourself. A fox that pounces on the fake gets cursed for a bit with one of four: TINY FOX, BACKWARDS, ACHOO!, or TARRED & FEATHERED, which stops it catching anyone at all.

Getting caught isn't the end, either. Caught chickens come back as ghosts who BOO the foxes to slow them down. And when a chicken carries a golden egg home, every ghost comes back to life. Comebacks happen all the time.

Tips for chickens and foxes

For the chickens:

1. Move when the fox is far away. Stress only builds when a fox is close, so don't sit in the bush right next to one.
2. Carry one or two eggs, not three. Speed keeps you alive.
3. Use the holes. Foxes can't squeeze through CHICKEN HOLES.
4. Gang up. Agree who jumps second, then stomp the fox twice in quick succession and laugh.
5. Go for the golden egg when your friends are ghosts. It brings them all back.

For the foxes:

1. Watch for farts. A green puff from a bush is a full confession.
2. HOWL by the henhouse path. Chickens drop their eggs and you get another shot at them.
3. SNIFF every time it's ready. It points straight at the nearest chickens.
4. Pounce on bushes, run on open ground. In the open, you're faster. Just chase them down.
5. Watch out for decoys. A chicken standing suspiciously still in plain sight might be a fake.

More winning habits for every mode are in our Pecking Order tips guide.

How do you start a game of Fox in the Henhouse?

Two ways:

• Host it. Host a game, pick FOX IN THE HENHOUSE, choose the farm and the clock, and send your friends the 4-letter room code. Pixaplay friends can be invited straight from the Pixaplay panel.
• Quick Play. Public games switch modes after every match, and Fox in the Henhouse comes up whenever there are 4 or more birds.

While everyone's arriving, every waiting room has two practice bushes, so new players can try hiding before the real thing. Open a room in your browser and send the code to the group chat.

What other hide and seek games can you play online?

To be fair to the alternatives, as of November 2026:

Among Us added Hide n Seek on 9 December 2022, and it's the better pick if your group already plays Among Us and loves its maps. If you've got more than 15 people, or friends on laptops who can't install anything, Fox in the Henhouse fits better. For more games that seat a crowd, see our list of online party games for 20 players.