Why is my hen suddenly eating wood shavings?

[New2Peeps]

One of the girls was being a pest today while I was cleaning out the coop and as I was shoveling out the shavings she was digging through them---I thought she was looking for bits of pellets or grain----but NO--she was actually grabbing mouthfuls of shavings and swallowing them

So I shooed her away, finished cleaning and put nice fresh shavings and stall-dri in the coop and she march right in and started in again grabbing the shavings and eating them. I haven't seen the others doing this.

I am a bit worried about crop impaction

They have layer pellets, oyster shell, grit, fresh water and get scratch grains, wheat bread and various fruits and veggies and they free range all day long.

So what do you think might be the cause of this odd behavior??

 

[chookchick]

One of my hens started doing this after she began laying eggs. She was pigging out on everything. I was worried about crop impaction, as her crop would be huge every night, but in the morning it was fine. I gave her some olive oil on oatmeal for a while, but she never seemed to have any issues, so I quit. She also likes to hang around when I am cleaning and eat shavings, she can be a bit tooo friendly and curious at times! I wouldn't worry too much about your hen unless her crop is not going down at night.

 

[New2Peeps]

Well I am glad to hear I am not the only one who has seen this happen. She did start laying about 6 weeks ago so maybe that is it. With all that food available you would think wood shavings would not be so appealing.