Full crop...how full is too full?

[NellaBean]

My girl is acting fine so far, so I figure this might be the section to put this. She was out loose in the yard all day scratching for bugs and grass and things. It is about a half acre, lots of grass, LOTS OF BUGS. Tonight her crop just seemed HUGE. One of the others had a relatively large one also, but they were aleady roosting so it was hard to compare. I have never seen it this big but I really do have about 800 million bugs in my yard so it is entirely possible she just really hit up the all you can eat bug buffett today.

She was acting totally normally, just zipping all over and scratching and pecking away for yummy stuff.

Anyone have pics of "normal" full crops?

 

[silkiechicken]

Full crops can be the size of a baseball easily. As long as by morning it is no longer large, she is just fine!

 

[gritsar]

I agree with silkie. I have one bird in particular that makes me sure she's going to fall over from her huge crop every evening. By morning, it's gone and she starts filling it up all over again.

 

[NellaBean]

As you can see, she is bright and normal in the pictures....just very lopsided. One of the white leghorns also had a very large crop...and i did catch these two hanging out together under a tree for a while. Maybe they hit the mother lode?

Thanks for the responses!

 

[Renee]

Looks normal to me- like you said, they probably just found some yummy bugs.

 

[ozark hen]

I try to remember to give my chickens bread with some olive oil on it about once a month or so just to keep those crops cleaned out. Kind of a preventative measure.

Most times though, it is about once every couple months.