Moving away from unmedicated feed - what age?

[imthedude]

Howdy folks. The first bag of feed that I bought for our girls was unmedicated Nutrena starter/grower. I wanted to go the unmedicated route to keep things "natural." Well the farm/ranch store has quit carrying the unmedicated version, and the Purina starter/grower that they sell is in a small bag that is way more expensive per volume than buying a 50# bag of the unmedicated. Looks like I'm stuck with the medicated until they start laying.

So my question is should they be off of the medicated feed by a certain age, or does it matter? My plan is to keep them on the starter/grower (which is medicated) until they start laying, at which time I'll switch over to a lay ration. Is this a problem, other than there possibly being residuals from the medicine in the first few eggs?

 

[HathawayHens]

I think if they sell Purina Flock Raiser, you can use that, and it's not medicated.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
You can keep them on the medicated until they start laying or switch them over to layer feed around 16 to 18 weeks. Either way is fine. My hens were still eating medicated starter when I got my first surprise! egg and I made the switch then. I didn't eat those first eggs, but only because I am highly allergic to alot of medications. Unless someone in your family has an allergy to sulfur, the first eggs (from a hen fed medicated starter/grower) are fine to eat.
By the way, the medication in medicated starter is not an antibiotic, as many people believe. It's called a coccidistat. It inhibits the growth of coccidia.