Eggs and medicated feed

[PotterWatch]

Now that some of my girls are getting close to laying age I am really starting to look forward to getting fresh eggs. I assume the feed (chick starter/grower) is medicated but honestly I have never checked. I have heard from other chicken people in my area that non-medicated feed is very hard to find so that is why I assume mine is. Is it ok to eat eggs laid by pullets who are on medicated feed?

 

[speckledhen]

Yes, it's fine. Amprolium and other similar meds are just coccidiostats and have no withdrawal time for eating the eggs.

 

[PotterWatch]

Thank you!

 

[speckledhen]

You are quite welcome.

 

[ScottK]

You should switch to layer feed. It doesn't have medication and does have calcium that they need for eggs

 

[speckledhen]

How close to laying age are they? If they are around 17-18 weeks old you can certainly start layer feed, however, I usually wait till I see the first egg myself, especially if I have more starter/grower to use up.

 

[PotterWatch]

My oldest ones are just about 18wks but I have two 10-11 week old ones that share the space so I am keeping them all on chick feed and just supplementing with oyster shell until the little ones are old enough to have layer as well.

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds good, then. Yes, it's hard when you have a mixed age group. I do right now myself so I bought some UNmedicated chick starter to put out for a couple or three weeks for everyone. There is still layer, but the feeder is hanging a bit high for the smallest ones. They still eat a few bites of the layer pellets, but hopefully, not enough to hurt them. I have 20 youngsters ages 11-15 weeks old in with my 24 layers now.

 

[All about the EGG]

We feed Kent chic go. It has Amprolium. And it says to feed to the point of lay, and says nothing about waiting to eat any eggs. Although we are mixing the chic go with the extra egg 16 because we had a lot leftover. Waste not, want not...especially at $15 a bag!

 

[Aisle12Farms]

I am still a newbie (@ 1 year into this whole chicken lifestyle) and added ten more chicks to my flock this summer. The initial introduction of the new birds with the existing flock have gone extremely well thus far. My problem is that the new chicks still need the medicated feed in their coop, and the other girls need layer pellets. Since melding the flocks together into one, they all have access to each others coops. Seems like the big girls are more interested in the medicated feed and the little girls are more interested in the layer pellets. I am thinking of mixing both into each coops feeders and letting them "pick and choose" what they want to eat from the feeder. Is this a good idea or a bad idea?