Does anyone else have ice eaters?

[EmmaDonovan]

One of my black Australorps eats ice cubes. She didn't used to. This just started with the heat this year. She grabs an ice cube out of the water, runs away with it and eats it like it's a high-value treat.

Naturally, the other hens saw this and also decided that ice cubes are treats. They fight over the ice cubes and run off to eat them. Half dozen hens do this now.

They eat them after they've melted a lot so these aren't full-sized ice cubes, just bits of ice. Sometimes they take the larger ones and toss them around and grind them into the dirt to break them up or get them to melt down to a size they can swallow.

What kind of chicken weirdness is this? I assume it doesn't hurt them to eat ice?

FWIW, the Australorps handle the heat the best out of all the flock. They are the last to start panting and the first to stop. The flock gets ice in their waterers, ice water foot baths, shade, fans, frozen peas and fruit chunks to eat, frozen 2L water bottles to lay against, and misters, all to help them handle the heat, so I don't think this is some kind of desperate attempt to cool off as if they have no other options.

 

[DobieLover]

The vast majority of my flock are snow/ice munchers. So they do this in the coldest weather. As soon as I open the door to their pen they will walk out and start eating snow. Or they pick it off my shoes while I'm cleaning the boards. They like it so much that if the snow is so deep that I won't let them out in the pen, I will make a bunch of snow balls for them and spread them around the run so they can peck away at them. I guess they consider it a novelty.

 

[kattabelly]

I guess they consider it a novelty.

Yep. It's hailing here and some of mine are running around eating it like they haven't had food or water for days.

 

[RoyalChick]

Mine too are keen snow eaters. When I shovel the path to the coop I always throw the last few shovels full in for them to enjoy.
I haven’t tried them with ice cubes in the summer. I wonder if I got that shaved ice if they would chow down!

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I feed mine an ice block with fruit in it sometimes in the summer and they demolish it. I haven’t tried ice cubes though. Definitely going to

 

[pollipazzi]

Yep. It's hailing here and some of mine are running around eating it like they haven't had food or water for days.

mine do the same with hail!