Chooks eating wet sand?

[kyuu]

So I've seen my chicken purposely spill the water (from the water container on the wall of the run) several times and eat the wet sand. And then my other chook joins in the wet sand eating ritual... They still drink normally and eat a lot though, I've seen that. I've tried covering the front of the container with plastic but they carry the water in their beaks and then spill it onto the sand.

My flock of two gets plenty of space, layer feed, bits of shells, some treats (2-5cm cut grass, corn, yoghurt, dinner scraps) and grit. It's been raining a lot recently so they haven't been outside for about week but they've been eating wet sand for about 2 weeks. Oh, and it's a new water container, it's been there for a bit more than 2 weeks. The old one was a bit small and needed refilling too often so we got a new one and it's bright blue, if that's anyhow related to the wet sand eating. Why are they doing this and can anything be done to stop this? Is this normal/healthy? I'm quite concerned...

 

[Percheron chick]

Totally normal. The sand is just grit. I make mine a large mud puddle to wade and wallow in. They all like to drink the muddy water and eat the moist dirt.

 

[eggspectation]

Mine also eat wet sand.

 

[Miss Henny]

Once I saw my chickens just standing there eating sand ;P HAHAHA, but I guess it's normal