Chickens eating concrete crumbles?

[DianeS]

I offer free choice grit to my chickens, but this weekend they were free-ranging in my backyard, and discovered that one part of my ancient concrete patio was crumbling. They all spent the next several minutes pecking at the crumbled concrete and eating it like grit!

Is this just a natural attempt to vary their diet (I guess different types of grit count as variety), or does it indicate that they are not eating as much of the regular grit as they should? If there is something I ought to be doing to encourage more regular grit consumption, please let me know!

 

[Mahonri]

They'll live. It will help them digest the food, just like gravel. Amazing what foragers they are. But you also need to careful that you don't leave anything out that will harm them.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

If there is grit to be found (in the soil or some you provided), then you are doing fine.

 

[mgw]

They will be fine. No worries

 

[DianeS]

So they were just fascinated by a "new" kind of grit? Good to know!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

There's a lot of lime in concrete so it's also a calcium source as well.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

They are fascinated by anything that excites one of them or you.

Should you ever see a chicken with something it should not have, do not chase it – the chicken will surely gulp the anti-chicken food right down (plus the rest of the flock will start chasing both of you).

Get a treat or a handful of food – get their attention and throw it down. Generally the anti-chicken food will be dropped in favor of the food you have tossed.


The stuff they eat would make you pass out if you saw it.