Should a crop have air in it?

[CrazyAnimalGirl]

I'm not a chicken expert yet, still learning! I had a hen die of what I thought was sour crop and now i'm paranoid about everyone else. I feel everyone's crops daily and i've gotten a few new chickens lately, and they are all different. I just want to make sure i'm not doing anything wrong.

I got a new roo today that has a really tight, full (of food) crop. Which seems normal to me. But my some of my other chickens anywhere from 4 months old to about laying age have air in their crop, at the top. They have food in there, but it's like a bubble of air as well. One of the new chickens, a houdan, had a big bubble-looking crop (when bathing) and I tried to "squish it" to let some air out and she kind of burped, then it went down a little....

What's normal and what's not?
Do I need to give them oyster shells or grit? What's best?

They are in a new coop and run where there should be plenty of ground findings at the moment.

Please help me!!!

Also, my silkie seems like he has the stinkiest breath. Does that mean anything? Automatically mean sour crop? I smell it when he's snuggling and I try to talk to him, then he does the open mouth act like I am going to say something, tongue, confused thing....

 

[elmo]

It's understandable that you're worried after the loss of your bird. But try to calm down a bit. There's a good deal of variation in crops. A crop stores food for later use, so it's not unusual in gobbling things up that some air should get in there, too.

Offer oyster shell to your layers. This is a calcium supplementation. Grit (usually crushed granite chips) is usually offered free choice to chickens so they can swallow what they need to store in their gizzard (not their crop). In the gizzard, which is one of the chicken's two stomachs, the grit helps to crush food up into more digestible bits.

 

[CrazyAnimalGirl]

So use the grit for any age, regardless, and add oyster (use both) for the older chickens?