Chickens spit on their food?

[Fluckadoodledoooo]

So the other day I picked up one of my chickens and she spit up saliva/water. I hadn’t seen her do that before so was worried but nothing came of it. Then today two of my other chickens spit up on their food and ate it. Are they sick? Is this normal behavior?

 

[Wezdin]

Definitley not normal behavior, look up sour crop.

 

[laurenjoers]

I have seen two of my hens do this a couple times; one seemed to drool on the ground before she started to peck there, and the other drank a bunch of water (too fast I assume) and kind of ‘spit it’ back into the water. They are still fine and lively to this day, but it could have been an undiagnosed problem that they resolved themselves. There’s also a chance you accidentally pressed on the first one’s crop when you picked her up and she had just drank a bunch of water.

 

[laurenjoers]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-throwing-up.609482/post-8044439