@Chickie McChickerson -
A little chicken biology to help understand the answer:
We have teeth to help break down food for further digestion. Chickens don't. Instead, they must quickly swallow chunks of food (up to and including full mice as adults) because they are prey animals. That food ends up in a storage sack called the crop. Food then passes to the gizzard where the grit is stored. The gizzard is a powerful muscle that uses the grit to crush the food into softer/smaller bits before passing it onto the rest of the digestive system.
Commercial crumble/pellet ingredients are already pre-ground and quickly dissolve in water. So, chickens that only eat commercial feed do not need grit and commercial egg producers don't bother with grit. Backyard chickens generally eat lots of vegetation, insects, worms, etc. All of those things need to be ground to get the most nutrients out of the food.
Hope that helps.
A little chicken biology to help understand the answer:
We have teeth to help break down food for further digestion. Chickens don't. Instead, they must quickly swallow chunks of food (up to and including full mice as adults) because they are prey animals. That food ends up in a storage sack called the crop. Food then passes to the gizzard where the grit is stored. The gizzard is a powerful muscle that uses the grit to crush the food into softer/smaller bits before passing it onto the rest of the digestive system.
Commercial crumble/pellet ingredients are already pre-ground and quickly dissolve in water. So, chickens that only eat commercial feed do not need grit and commercial egg producers don't bother with grit. Backyard chickens generally eat lots of vegetation, insects, worms, etc. All of those things need to be ground to get the most nutrients out of the food.
Hope that helps.
