how long before eggs from chickens on "traditional feed" are without traces of meds?

[romea]

hello everybody!
we added 2 hens that were raised by "maple leaf" - a large grower in our area here in canada - to our small flock. the hens are doing great and have started laying eggs within days of getting them. they are also amazingly tame and - to my greatest surprise - trusting. (one is especially curious... & very cute. ;-))

however, i am aware that these animals would have been fed 'specially' medicated food - not just the immune enhancing vit-b supplement. as far as i was able to find, arsenic has been in the diet of our american factory chickens as late as of june 2014 and i am assuming that canadian growers are not much better.

so here is my question: how long before all this #$&* is out of a chicken's system?
btw: they are, i trust, enjoying the greens & worms they find in our yard and the freedom that comes with it...

 

[DaveOmak]

Each med has it's own specific "half life"... If they were layers, where you bought them, I would assume the eggs were safe for human consumption... (That's not saying a lot).... I'd wait 3 weeks.... or 4.... just to be on the safe side....

 

[romea]

thank you for this prompt answer!
they were sold to us as 16-19 week old hens (or something like that). so they would not have been in the business (of laying eggs) for long...

 

[Ridgerunner]

My suggestion is to talk to Maple Leaf and find out what you are dealing with. You can sit there and imagine the worst possible scenario or you can deal with reality. It’s generally more calming if you know what you are actually dealing with. And you can make better decisions.

The questions I’d ask are not only what medications they have received in what dosage and when, but also what vaccinations they have received, if any. Then do research on the stuff you need to do research on so you can make an informed decision.

 

[romea]

thank you for your suggestion!
in a perfect world, this straight path would be the one i, too, would (have) select(ed). however, i have come across a blog in which the writer contacted maple leaf with this very question. that was sometime in 2013. i believe s/he is still waiting for an answer.

btw, since these chickens are hybrids, i also tried to find out the various breeds that were crossed in - and was told by the co-op store owner that it is a secret formula.
in other words: 'it' is as fiercely guarded as the ingredients for coca-cola.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes the commercial laying hybrids are a result of millions of dollars of research (Canadian or US, whatever the exchange rate). It’s not a formula they can print off but the results of many decades of selective breeding. No GMO’s or anything funny with genetic manipulation, just choosing the breeding birds with care by experts. They have developed four different flocks. Each flock produces a specific grandparent of that laying hybrid hen. One flock will produce the father’s mother. A different flock will produce the father’s father. It’s big business and that breeding stock is closely guarded.

They are not breeds. They probably have a lot of leghorn in their genetics but other breeds were also mixed in many decades ago. I’m not familiar with the specific Maple Leaf chickens you got, but they should have fairly small bodies so they don’t use a lot of feed to maintain body weight. They have a really good feed to egg conversion ratio. They should be sexable at hatch so they don’t have to feed the males that hatch. The eggs should be fairly large. The hens should not be flighty and should take confinement well. It’s not surprising that they are calm. They are bred to be that way.

They should give you a lot of nice eggs and to me, giving them a chance to forage for some of their food is a great improvement to their quality of life.

 

[romea]

ridgerunner, how very interesting! and yes, this explains a lot - and also their behaviour, which i really enjoy.
you are, btw, right in that their body size is also smaller. the eggs are too at this early point but i understand that this is, of course, due to their immaturity.

as for their behaviour: i have always associated curiosity with intelligence and they (or especially 1 of them) definitely stick(s) out.
however, i would believe that this counteracts "taking confinement well" - don't you think?