Cornish Cross are ready to butcher, BUT...

cutechick2010

Songster
9 Years
Aug 22, 2010
354
19
128
Illinois 20 chicken years
They got into the medicated chick starter the younger chicks are still getting! They have literally been going and stealing the chick starter from the young layer pullets my mom has next door (all our birds free range) so now they are medicated again! These darn birds are ready to process, but I do NOT want to eat medicated birds. Does anyone know how long it takes for the medicated feed to get out of their systems? They last got the chick starter yesterday morning, I put them in a pen today so that they can't get it anymore. This really frustrates me, they were ready to do last week but I had to put it off because I simply had NO time then.
 
If it's the standard "medicated" feed then as I recall it is only active in the gut. Feed them for a day to clean out their system and put them on the bus to freezer camp.
 
Amprolium is what they put into most medicated feeds to prevent coccidiosis in chicks. There is no withdrawl time for that particular medication because it doesn't leave the digestive system, so it's not absorbed into the muscle and won't affect the meat. Look on the feed tag sewn on the end of the bag and see if it mentions WITHDRAWL time. Any drugs will be listed and if there is anything used in it that can be absorbed into the tissue they will give the withdrawl time for that drug, which tells you how long until it is out of the birds system.

Your chickens are likely safe to butcher. Just check the tag to be sure.

Lisa
 

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