Can a mother hen eat medicated food?

6-Hens-and-Me

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My Serama eggs are about 3 days away from hatch in the incubator- and like a miracle their mother’s just gone broody. So I intend to give her the chicks when they hatch, I’ve already gotten the medicated food for them- my question is, is can the mother hen eat it as well? I intend to split the Serama pen giving her one half and the others the other half so the feed obviously can’t have any negative effects on the other hens. Who won’t be eating it, but will be in close proximity to the poop,

If you’d like a photo of the feed let me know
Many thanks!!
 
What medication is in the food?
image.jpg
 
It's a bit hard to read the label in the picture (reflected light is a nuisance when taking photos!)

But I'm pretty sure it says the medication is monensin sodium at a rate of 125 mg per kg of feed.

I'm not familiar with that particular medication, so I looked it up.
I find lots of sources-- including the bag you have-- that say not to feed it to laying hens.

I tried to figure out the reason (danger to people eating the eggs? danger to the hen herself?) I cannot find a specific length of time to avoid eating eggs from hens that had that medication.

Regarding health of the hen, I did find this article:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03079459408419027
Title is "Monensin toxicity in two breeds of laying hens"
Authors Y. Weisman, E. Wax & I. Bartov
Published in 2007

It says that higher doses of monensin will cause hens to lay fewer eggs, and will cause some hens to die. The dose in your chick feed is about the point at which the study found it to be fairly safe.

There is also some discussion of that medicine in this older thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-laying-chickens-and-safe-to-eat-eggs.844615/


If you have access to non-medicated chick starter, I would be inclined to use it instead. If this is the only chick starter you have, I would probably use it, and let the hen eat it too, because it is not really practical to feed a hen one feed and her chicks another feed.

My Serama eggs are about 3 days away from hatch in the incubator- and like a miracle their mother’s just gone broody. So I intend to give her the chicks when they hatch
Have you done this before, with this hen?

Most hens need to sit on eggs (real or fake) for a while before they are ready to accept chicks to raise. So if the hen has just now gone broody, she may not be willing to adopt these chicks when they hatch. Of course you will not know for sure until you try it. Some hens will accept chicks much sooner than other hens, and your might be one that will.

If the hen is not willing to accept the chicks, you will not have to decide about whether she can eat this medicated feed. But you would have to brood the chicks yourself.
 
It's a bit hard to read the label in the picture (reflected light is a nuisance when taking photos!)

But I'm pretty sure it says the medication is monensin sodium at a rate of 125 mg per kg of feed.

I'm not familiar with that particular medication, so I looked it up.
I find lots of sources-- including the bag you have-- that say not to feed it to laying hens.

I tried to figure out the reason (danger to people eating the eggs? danger to the hen herself?) I cannot find a specific length of time to avoid eating eggs from hens that had that medication.

Regarding health of the hen, I did find this article:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03079459408419027
Title is "Monensin toxicity in two breeds of laying hens"
Authors Y. Weisman, E. Wax & I. Bartov
Published in 2007

It says that higher doses of monensin will cause hens to lay fewer eggs, and will cause some hens to die. The dose in your chick feed is about the point at which the study found it to be fairly safe.

There is also some discussion of that medicine in this older thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-laying-chickens-and-safe-to-eat-eggs.844615/


If you have access to non-medicated chick starter, I would be inclined to use it instead. If this is the only chick starter you have, I would probably use it, and let the hen eat it too, because it is not really practical to feed a hen one feed and her chicks another feed.


Have you done this before, with this hen?

Most hens need to sit on eggs (real or fake) for a while before they are ready to accept chicks to raise. So if the hen has just now gone broody, she may not be willing to adopt these chicks when they hatch. Of course you will not know for sure until you try it. Some hens will accept chicks much sooner than other hens, and your might be one that will.

If the hen is not willing to accept the chicks, you will not have to decide about whether she can eat this medicated feed. But you would have to brood the chicks yourself.
Ok, might just get some unmedicated food then- yes I’ve done this before just fine- she is a very maternal little lady! 😂
 
I'm disappointed in Marriage's as they do not show a photo of their label. I can't tell what is in it. But I did see a comment where they have temporarily changed their coccidiostat due to supply problems. I don't know how current that is.

@6-Hens-and-Me I'd suggest you try to contact the manufacturer and discuss it with them. They should be able to give you guidance.

Since the broody hen is not laying eggs I'd probably feel comfortable giving her that feed even though I'm not sure what the actual medication is. But I would not want to eat any eggs laid by hens eating that unless I had a lot more information. I do not know what the withdrawal period for whatever medication your bag has so I might be uncomfortable eating that hen's eggs for a week or two after she goes back to laying.

I do not like not knowing what the medication is.
 
I'm disappointed in Marriage's as they do not show a photo of their label. I can't tell what is in it. But I did see a comment where they have temporarily changed their coccidiostat due to supply problems. I don't know how current that is.
I thought I saw photos of two sides of the same package: one with lots of small print (hard to read because of the way plastic reflects light) and one of the front of the bag. In the photo of the small-print side, when I zoom in on the last big fat paragraph, it seems to say:

"This feed contains the specified feed additive COXIDIN 200 MICROGRANULATE PREMIX (61701) added at 62 kg/Tonne giving 125 mg/kg MONENSIN SODIUM as an aid in the prevention of coccidiosis. For treatment of chickens aged UP TO 16 WEEKS OLD ONLY, reared for laying & fattening only. NOT TO BE USED IN BREEDING OR LAYING BIRDS OR ANY OTHER SPECIES. Dangerous for equines..."

(If anyone thinks I mis-read part of it, please say so. I had to guess at a few letters here and there.)
 
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