Tell us, do they have access to the compost pile where you throw the used shavings, if you do that? The reason I'm asking is this: I've had two hens with sour crop in the past couple of weeks. The first one died, the second is recovering. They live in different coops and eat different feeds, at least when this happened. I was puzzled and figured it was something they were getting into on-range. Today, I think I found the culprit. My compost pile is surrounded by welded wire fencing with the 2"x4" openings. I found that they had eaten a "moat" most of the way around the pile about a foot wide by sticking their heads way into the fencing. I know for a fact that there is old feed in there among the shavings and surely at the bottom of the pile around the sides, some wet feed has molded. I think my two hens got into a "pocket" of moldy feed in the compost. We remedied that by surrounding the fence with 1" opening plastic garden fencing so they cant eat that stuff. They've always pecked at the stuff that grows in there from the old scratch, but this is the first time I've had a serious problem like this.
