chicks eating leaf mould

[saywhat]

I ran out of pine chips for my 3 week old chick's box so I raked some oak leaves up from my yard to put in there. They are going crazy eating the leaf mould. You know, the composted rotted oak leaves, black dirt, whatever. is this okay or will it hurt them?

 

[saywhat]

Well. if it kills them they'll die happy. They sure are enjoying themselves.

 

[triplepurpose]

Chickens eat all kinds of weird stuff: dirt, dead leaves, dropped feathers, little rocks, poop. If they are eating something, there's probably something in it they need. I just trust them to be the judges. To my knowledge, I've never had a chicken hurt itself from eating something it shouldn't...

The only things I wouldn't apply that reasoning to might be unnatural man-made garbage: plastic and styrofoam, motor oil, cigarette butts, etc.