Grainy black bits in poop

[PippinChicken]

After spotting a worm in a pile of poop for the first time (they've now been treated with safeguard), I've been paying extra extra close attention to my chickens' poop. I've noticed a lot of black sort of grainy looking pieces mixed in, somewhere between the size of a strawberry seed and a grain of rice. Not all the poops have them, and the ones that do have them in varying degrees.

I can't find anything online that looks like this... Is it a normal thing that I never noticed before, or something more sinister? They've had no chance in diet and don't get any seed-looking treats.

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Pics of the poop and @casportpony might be able to answer.

 

[PippinChicken]

 

[staceyj]

Are the black bits hard or soft?

 

[PippinChicken]

Are the black bits hard or soft?

Hard, they almost seem like little pebbles

 

[staceyj]

They might be pebbles.
Or charcoal. Do you have a fire pit?
Or seeds from a bush or plant in your yard.
How long have you been seeing them?

 

[staceyj]

They look like bits of driveway asphalt.

 

[PippinChicken]

They might be pebbles.
Or charcoal. Do you have a fire pit?
Or seeds from a bush or plant in your yard.
How long have you been seeing them?

They do seem suspiciously pebble-like No fire pit and they are in a large enclosed run that they have turned primarily to mud at this time of year, so their potential seed exposure is pretty limited.

I started noticing them a few weeks ago, when I developed the habit of using twigs to poke apart droppings after seeing a roundworm for the first time. My first panicked thought had been "worm eggs" but they are far from microscopic!

 

[PippinChicken]

They look like bits of driveway asphalt.

I've never noticed anything like this in their run, and it was lovely lush moss before they annihilated it, but I'm definitely going to take a closer look!

 

[Kris5902]

Ah the many joys of chickens... spending a good amount of time each day carefully looking at, poking, and taking pictures of their poop! Things they don’t tell you about when you get those first eggs or cute little fluff balls, eh? Following, because that’s also one of my primary forms of entertainment too now that I have chickens!