Crop - what to look/feel for?

[kuntrychick]

I've seen many posts regarding inspecting chickens' crops. Well, I can tell it's full by it poking out in the afternoon/evening. I can tell it's empty looking in the morning because it's not poking out.

What else am I supposed to check on regarding the crop? What is it supposed to feel like (for the ones I can easily catch)?

How do you know if they have sour crop & such?

What all can you tell about a chicken & their crop by inspecting it & what are all the ways to "inspect" it?

 

[WoodlandWoman]

As long as it goes down in size over night, that's really the main thing you look for with a normally functioning crop.

It's when it doesn't ever reduce in size and/or there's a bad smell coming from it that you worry. That's when they might have something in there that's jammed up and not flowing through to the rest of the digestive system. That's when people start feeling it, trying to figure out what's in there. Does it feel like a big hard blob or a large fibrous mass, etc.