Medicated pullet feed vs. mature hens

[Amelia_Brazent]

I've recently transitioned three 10.5 week old Silkie pullets outdoors with my two six month old Silkie hens. Transition went well, everyone is living pretty harmoniously.

The pullets are still eating medicated pullet feed, which I can't seem to stop the hens from eating. My local grain & fodder told me it wouldn't harm the hens, would just mean we can't eat their eggs. However, I'm currently nursing one of the hens through a sour crop which I suspect she got from the medicated feed.

The other hen is fine so far, but she's just come off from being broody (literally in the last day and a bit), so hasn't been eating all that much anyway up until now.

I would really like to get rid of the medicated pullet feed, so that the other hen doesn't also get crop issues, and when the sick one is able to head back out to the coop again she doesn't get a sour crop all over again.

My question is: is 10.5 weeks too young to take off medicated feed? Could I switch to a non-medicated pullet feed that would be safer for the hens?

As an aside, how common is sour crop? This is my first time dealing with it, and I'm finding it a fairly distressing experience, for both me and the bird

Thank you in advance for your thoughts!

 

[littledog]

I've never had to deal with sour crop so I can't help you there. But if your young pullets are fully-feathered and old enough to live outside in the coop with your adult hens, you can transition them away from the medicated feed and onto an all-flock feed or whatever big-girl feed your older ones are used to.

 

[Iluveggers]

If you want to finish up your bag of chick feed, you can put the feeders behind a screen that only the littles can reach to keep the big girls out. Once the food is gone, only buy big girl food. (I don’t like to waste so I would let them finish it.)

 

[K0k0shka]

I don't know why so many people are afraid of medicated feed, and scaring others as well. There's no harm in feeding it to any age chicken, especially since it's only fed for a short amount of time anyway, just a few weeks. You can feed it to all your pullets without any problem (the 6-month-olds are still pullets, too). And you can eat the eggs. It's totally fine. All it does is help them build immunity to coccidia. If they already have immunity (because the medication worked, or because they acquired it naturally from the soil), then the medication will just do nothing.

I feed the whole flock medicated chick starter when I have chicks hatched with the flock and everybody is absolutely fine. I think it takes a few weeks for them to build immunity. So your 10.5-week-olds probably don't need it anymore, but it won't hurt them to finish the bag if you don't want to waste it. Have them all finish it and then get non-medicated next.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The feed companies like to say the chicks need medicated until 10 weeks of age. The reason is you are paying $1 more a bag for it. I don't use medicated at all. Some areas of the country need it but the reality is only for a few weeks to build immunity.

 

[K0k0shka]

The feed companies like to say the chicks need medicated until 10 weeks of age. The reason is you are paying $1 more a bag for it. I don't use medicated at all. Some areas of the country need it but the reality is only for a few weeks to build immunity.

Medicated and non-medicated are exactly the same price. At least Purina is.

 

[Amelia_Brazent]

I've never had to deal with sour crop so I can't help you there. But if your young pullets are fully-feathered and old enough to live outside in the coop with your adult hens, you can transition them away from the medicated feed and onto an all-flock feed or whatever big-girl feed your older ones are used to.

Thank you for the tip!! Much appreciated

 

[Geena]

My local grain & fodder told me it wouldn't harm the hens, would just mean we can't eat their eggs.

If it's medicated with amprolium, which is what is normally used in chick feed, you can eat the eggs. There is no egg withdrawal period for amprolium. It's not antibiotics or anything like that, just a compound that mimics thiamine, which is what the cocci feed on.

 

[Amelia_Brazent]

I don't know why so many people are afraid of medicated feed, and scaring others as well. There's no harm in feeding it to any age chicken, especially since it's only fed for a short amount of time anyway, just a few weeks. You can feed it to all your pullets without any problem (the 6-month-olds are still pullets, too). And you can eat the eggs. It's totally fine. All it does is help them build immunity to coccidia. If they already have immunity (because the medication worked, or because they acquired it naturally from the soil), then the medication will just do nothing.

I feed the whole flock medicated chick starter when I have chicks hatched with the flock and everybody is absolutely fine. I think it takes a few weeks for them to build immunity. So your 10.5-week-olds probably don't need it anymore, but it won't hurt them to finish the bag if you don't want to waste it. Have them all finish it and then get non-medicated next.

Thank you! I was fine with everyone eating medicated feed until one of my hens got a sour crop, which I'm worried is from her eating the little ones medicated feed.

 

[Amelia_Brazent]

If it's medicated with amprolium, which is what is normally used in chick feed, you can eat the eggs. There is no egg withdrawal period for amprolium. It's not antibiotics or anything like that, just a compound that mimics thiamine, which is what the cocci feed on.

Thank you! I'll check what the medicated ingredient is, we've got a row of little eggs that we would love to eat!