Using Ivermectin in laying birds

[annie2sox]

Need a bit of advice as a novice chicken keeper. Have just used Ivermectin (one drop each) on my three girls. They are just one year old and I have never medicated before or dusted for lice etc. Information on eating/discarding the eggs is conflicting, from zero to twenty one days. At the moment I am adopting a mid-point of fourteen days; Too long or not enough, what do more experienced peeps think please? How often do you advise this treatment and should I use piperazine in the drinking water before the next treatment. Finally I read that I can feed the discarded eggs back to the chickens rather than throw them away, what do most of you do?

Loving this community and looking forward to your replies.

annie2sox in Andalucia, Spain

 

[teach1rusl]

I've always heard not to eat the eggs for 2 weeks, but I've only treated a rooster, so didn't have to worry about it. When I was treating hens with an antibiotic, I did feed the eggs back to them. But I always wondered about the logic in that, since it seems like it would be at least partially feeding them back the antibiotics too (just less concentrated).