Personal hygiene when owning chickens and other animals

[beackers]

Hah! Hygiene and chickens? What ridiculous nonsense!
Hygiene and chickens are super unnecessary essential to any Backyard Chicken keeper. We have a few rules of thumb:

• Keep shoes clean if you go into the run- rub 'em on the rug outside the door or leave 'em outside.
• If you have anything to do with chickens, wash your hands. that one is probably the most important rule about chickens. They carry diseases, just like any other bird (think E. Coli and that junk)
• Tools? No problem if they've been in the run- it's down to you and exactly how OCD you are about cleanliness. Actions can vary from putting the tool in the shed to scrubbing it like you're gonna eat off of it (and gapeworms have been all over it).

All of that being said, it's really down to you to decide the rules of the roost. Have fun (scrubbing)!

 

[Ekipp]

Have a pair of boots/shoes you only use in the run/coop. You can transfer things from your shoes to your flock as well. Sloggers are great for gardening and flock-mastering. I wash them in a slop sink or with a hose in nicer weather. Feces = bacteria (and smell!). I wear gloves in the coop when cleaning and use ones that are thick rubber and able to rinse off in order to cut down on disposable glove waste. Finally, not only wash hands, but use a nail brush. I am a scientist and you cannot be too careful with E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, Chlamydia psittaci and potentially more.

 

[GrammaMickyMouse]

One would really NOT want to fall unconscious in a chicken run.

....snicker.....I really did slip & fall in the Coop....rainy & muddy last year....took a long while to get up.....sooooo disgusted with myself that I had let that happen in the first place....the Girls thought I was CRAZY!!!

 

[GrammaMickyMouse]

One would really NOT want to fall unconscious in a chicken run.

I did actually Fall just outside out Chicken Run Door....muddy & rainy....so embarrassing...all the Girls were staring at me trying to figure out why I wasn't coming inside....took me a while to just get back up....once down though...it was just "oh for pete's sake, here I am in the EWWWW!!!

 

[Borders3]

No, nothing

Same here, what a disgrace we are I have always said you've gotta eat muck to be immune to muck, society is too much on the kill all bacteria path, motivated by the adverts, everything is anti bac this and anti bac that, which is ridiculous as our bodies are full and covered with bacteria. I personally avoid all products labelled as such. I also avoid all those products full of chemicals to make your clothes smell fresher for longer, who the hell wants to absorb those chemicals through contact with your skin, certainly not me.

 

[Nodakj]

I have some insulated camo hunting muck boots i fequently wear to the coop and run. They are great winter/snow/chore boots. The whole family has their own also. Frequently get off work and go down to the coop and check for eggs in my work clothes and work shoes. We always wash our hands after handling the eggs. (Although them kids are kinda sketchy when it comes to the soap )

 

[janiedoe]

....snicker.....I really did slip & fall in the Coop....rainy & muddy last year....took a long while to get up.....sooooo disgusted with myself that I had let that happen in the first place....the Girls thought I was CRAZY!!!

I understand. I tripped over an over friendly hen last fall, and hit my head on a 4 x 4 post. Never fear, the hen survived and no one pecked me while I was down.
When I was able to pick myself up, I had poop everywhere, on my clothes, my hands, and even in my hair! And that was after I'd raked out the run.
It was a horrible experience. I also ended up with a pretty bad concussion. It took several weeks to get back to (my) normal.

 

[Goosebaby]

I don’t have chickens, I have geese and ducks.

My hygiene regimen is that I have my outdoor around the yard boots which don’t leave the property unless they get disinfected before coming back in. Shoes I wear off the property I don’t wear around the yard.

I don’t like sharing feed and water between the ducks and geese. There’s only so much I can help “like the pool which gets cleaned daily” but the ducks have their own water bucket in their own area which I don’t alow the geese to touch and I don’t let the ducks touch the goose buckets. Same goes for feed.
Ducks are much messier and disease prone compared to geese due to their habit of stuffing their faces into every soiled pile of rotting filth they can find and then generously spitting their findings into whichever source of water they can find first, so they’re prime transporters of disease and parasites.

Due to HPAI hitting the pacific flyway this year and last I’ve taken extra precautions and will Lysol feed and shaving bags when they arrive. I also will not travel to ponds or wetlands last year and this year, it’s too much of a risk.


My geese are separated into smaller groups during breeding season “too much fighting otherwise,” but regardless Year round they’re separated into groups of 2 or 3 to sleep in different kennels at night. I’ve had on/off issues with illnesses and it helps to slow or stop the spread sometimes.

 

[StinkyAcres]

After once putting my hand into a garden glove that had a wasp beginning a nest in it, I never leave any article of clothing outdoors where something other than my body might decide to take up residence.

I keep my barn coat in my walk-out basement and one evening I put it on and felt a rat crawling around between the layers of fabric. I quickly took the coat off and left it outside...then eventually threw it in the trash.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I'm pretty particular about it, as we've had a horrible bout of bacterial mastitis in the cattle (killed two heifers and a calf, almost lost another heifer), and I'm constantly aware of E-coli, salmonella, and other dangerous pathogens I'd rather not bring into the house. Farm shoes stay OUTDOORS. Period.

We have an area in the garage for all of the farm shoes. I actually have four pairs: Knee-high insulated muck boots and rubber ankle boots, either of which might be worn to tend the cattle and chickens depending on weather and depth of mud; slip-on sloggers if weather's dry, just for chickens; and a pair of tennis shoes for everything else outdoors but not for chicken or cattle manure. My grandkids each have a pair of rubber boots they wear to collect eggs, and I don't allow them to wear any other shoes into the pens. All shoes come off in the garage, then step into the house to put on other shoes or just socks or barefoot.

I didn't use to be picky about it at all. Always wore shoes in and out of the house, no big deal. And we do wear other shoes for shopping, going places, run to the mailbox, etc. that are okay inside or outside, I don't care. But if they go into the pens or pasture, OFF they come at the door and get washed or sanitized.

That's my biggest issue with animal hygiene; the shoes. I've pondered keeping a tub outside the chicken gate with water and a daily dose of bleach, to step through when coming out of the pen; or at the water hydrant where we hose off boots after tending cattle. Might do that. Again, mastitis, E-coli and salmonella.

Next, we always wash hands when coming in from outdoors, especially if we've touched anything that has been near the cattle or chickens. Eggs, harnesses, calf bottles, garden hoses, feed buckets, shovels, etc. I even have hand-washing stations set up at two outdoor hydrants, with a bottle of disinfecting soap in a coffee can, strapped to the hydrants. My grandson has tried every trick in the book to get out of washing hands (but Grandma, I wore gloves! But Grandma, I didn't touch anything! Yes, you did - you opened the gate, and you touched your boots. Go WASH.)

I don't sanitize tools - they only get used in contaminated areas anyway. No reason to bring a shovel into the house. But they ARE segregated: Tools used for chicken work live in the coop, those for cow work live in the barn, other tools live in the garden shed or garage. But if I work an area that is suspect for mastitis bacteria, or use a tool in a different area, then I wash tools at the hydrant before putting them away. Losing a chicken is one thing; losing a $$ cow $$ is quite another.

As for clothing, I don't really bother unless I got messy or muddy. I wear knock-around clothes most of the time anyway, as I rarely leave the farm. So feeding cattle or collecting eggs, no biggie. I'll keep them on inside, too. I only feel the need to change if I'm in physical contact with the cattle or their manure, or handling the chickens. I sometimes change twice a day if needed, especially socks and shirts. Extended handling of cattle and cleaning the coop warrants a full shower and change of clothes.

Last summer, I raised a bunch of pigs for slaughter. That work was soooo messy, muddy, smelly, icky and GROSS ... sometimes when I slipped in the mud and fell into their mud pits or manure, I hosed my whole body with the garden hose before coming into the garage to strip, and then ran naked to the shower.

So do you still think your habits are overkill? Probably not. But mine certainly are! LOL