It seems to do them no harm...
In the spring we bought (for pennies) a few polystrene boxes, which had been used as Cool Boxes to transport food stuffs, they were the right depth for growing carrots in.
Missus put the box out on a small shelf next to the greenhouse and lo and behold the girls started pecking away at the corner and eating the stuff
and kept going back each day for more.
Thought they would have problems, but nothing happened. Still moved the half eaten box away from them though
Wouldn't mind having a look at the programme, please post the link and i'll try and see if i can get it working