4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Fourbecameeight]

One of our hens wasn’t right this morning, hunched up and not in the thick of it with the others and just a bit slow and sorry for herself. I took her to the vet straight away because of all i have learnt using this forum. The vet said she was running a temp and had lost some weight and has put her on antibiotics.

 

My question is, I can’t eat her eggs during the time she is on antibiotics but I have three brown egg layers in that coop so unless I catch them laying i will have to remove all three. If i feed these back to the hens can i eat the eggs from the white egg layer if she has eaten the egg from the antibiotic chicken. I hope you follow. Or do i feed the eggs to just the three brown egg layers or would it not come into her white eggs because it would have been through a chicken twice?

[Egluntyne]

My vet said to me that many folk feed the eggs back to the hens as they are not suitable for human consumption, but that this wasn't a good idea, as the very residues that humans are avoiding are going through the hens a second time, resulting in them being in the hens system for longer. If you fed the eggs to the other hens, they would getting a sort of half treatment which is probably not a good idea.

 

However, many do it, so I suppose you have to weigh the arguments up. It does seem a shame to have to waste otherwise good eggs.

 

 

Could you keep her separate for the morning until they have all laid and them put her back in with the others for the duration of the treatment and egg withdrawal period?

[Fourbecameeight]

Thank you for the reply.

 

I have been thinking about it today and i will throw the eggs away. I know it’s a shame but I am not short of eggs as I am also getting three a day from the ex-batts that are still in a separate coop. I normally end up giving eggs away.

 

I am just so pleased that the hen is making good progress and was looking normal today. She can finish her course of antibiotics and i hope we caught whatever it was in time.

 

I have move the coop today to a different part of the garden, removed the old bark chip i had them on and disinfected the area. I have put shaving down in the run now in case it was something in the bark chip. From reading this forum i now know it wasn’t the best.

 

The aviary panels for my new WIR are coming on Wednesday and OH is laying the bricks this weekend so i can’t wait to get them in there in a new purple cube.