Raising chickens with children

[Flixflaxnoob]

I am curious the precautions others take when letting their children handle chickens. I am also a little embarrassed by my situation, so please be kind. I think my 5yo son contracted a minor case of salmonella from the chickens.

This is my first year and I primarily got a few chicks as pets for my 5yo (I would be the primary caretaker though). He loves them so much. They're 6 weeks now and starting to spend time outside when the weather is nice. My 5yo can spend hours with them in their run if given the chance. After every interaction with the chickens, which is always supervised, I have him wash his hands. The handwashing is not always supervised, but the few times I've watched him, I thought he was being thorough. When my son interacts with them while they're in their brooder in the house or, more recently, in the garage, I also had my son wear a mask because it was so dusty. His interactions mostly involve petting them and letting them crawl all over him, but I tell him to keep them away from his face.

A few days ago, my son starting having morning diarrhea that would get more solid throughout the day and less frequent throughout the week. It's slowly gotten better, but we're keeping him out of school until it's solid. Besides the morning diarrhea, he acts, eats, sleeps normally. I searched online for "morning diarrhea"and salmonella came up as a possibility, so now I feel I should have taken more precautions and set more boundaries. I started having him change out his clothes too if he went into the run with them.

I don't know if it matters, but we just have 5 chicks and so far, we've only been able to get 3 of them in the outdoor run on nice days.

 

[Penpal]

Salmonella is spread through dirty conditions. Like a large commercial enterprise. It is in the air. I think it is unlikely your son contracted salmonella from your chickens. However, he could have gotten it somewhere else. Salmonella is typically a 3 day illness.

 

[Flixflaxnoob]

Salmonella is spread through dirty conditions. Like a large commercial enterprise. It is in the air. I think it is unlikely your son contracted salmonella from your chickens. However, he could have gotten it somewhere else. Salmonella is typically a 3 day illness.

I don't even know if it is salmonella. Could be something he caught from school. It's just weird that he seems normal except for the diarrhea in the morning. Until recently, the brooder was in the kitchen, about 15 ft from where food prep happens. I did my best to keep the area clean, added an air purifier, and disinfected the area after moving the brooder to the garage, but I was thinking maybe it wasn't enough.

 

[K0k0shka]

Have you taken him to be seen by a doctor for the diarrhea? A doctor can test for and confirm salmonella, if that's what it is. You talk about "throughout the week" which sounds like the diarrhea is stretching out beyond the usual couple days that most common school bugs last, sounds like it might be more serious and worth getting him checked.

The precautions you describe all sound fine except for the brooder being in the kitchen, that's a big red flag. Chicken dander flies on the air and settles all over nearby surfaces, even if you have an air purifier, so having chickens so close to food prep areas is a sanitation issue. Normal interactions with chickens, especially when washing hands afterwards, aren't all that dangerous, but dander and dried poop dust settling on food prep surfaces and then being ingested is a whole separate thing. At 6 weeks old, your chicks are old enough to be moved permanently outside. They don't need supplemental heat anymore, it's mid-April and not that cold outside anymore (especially not where you are), so it's time to evict them from your kitchen. Your son can still visit them and spend time with them, but you'll all be safer if they're outside.

We got the first members of our current flock when my youngest kid was 4. We have since brooded chicks in the house 4 consecutive years, for about 5 weeks at a time, the kids have loved and interacted with each new brood. But the brooder was on a different floor than the kitchen and dining area - upstairs in the hallway across from the bedrooms. We had an air purifier next to it. The kids would have the chicks crawl all over them, perch on their heads and shoulders, it was adorable. Then they'd wash their hands thoroughly after (I had them count to 20 while scrubbing). Once the chicks went outside, the kids had separate "chicken clothes and shoes" for when they visited them in the run, just because kids and chickens would dig in the dirt together and make a total mess, which I didn't want in the house. So they'd change at the door. This is our 5th year with this flock, and nobody has gotten sick yet.

 

[Flixflaxnoob]

Have you taken him to be seen by a doctor for the diarrhea? A doctor can test for and confirm salmonella, if that's what it is. You talk about "throughout the week" which sounds like the diarrhea is stretching out beyond the usual couple days that most common school bugs last, sounds like it might be more serious and worth getting him checked.

The precautions you describe all sound fine except for the brooder being in the kitchen, that's a big red flag. Chicken dander flies on the air and settles all over nearby surfaces, even if you have an air purifier, so having chickens so close to food prep areas is a sanitation issue. Normal interactions with chickens, especially when washing hands afterwards, aren't all that dangerous, but dander and dried poop dust settling on food prep surfaces and then being ingested is a whole separate thing. At 6 weeks old, your chicks are old enough to be moved permanently outside. They don't need supplemental heat anymore, it's mid-April and not that cold outside anymore (especially not where you are), so it's time to evict them from your kitchen. Your son can still visit them and spend time with them, but you'll all be safer if they're outside.

We got the first members of our current flock when my youngest kid was 4. We have since brooded chicks in the house 4 consecutive years, for about 5 weeks at a time, the kids have loved and interacted with each new brood. But the brooder was on a different floor than the kitchen and dining area - upstairs in the hallway across from the bedrooms. We had an air purifier next to it. The kids would have the chicks crawl all over them, perch on their heads and shoulders, it was adorable. Then they'd wash their hands thoroughly after (I had them count to 20 while scrubbing). Once the chicks went outside, the kids had separate "chicken clothes and shoes" for when they visited them in the run, just because kids and chickens would dig in the dirt together and make a total mess, which I didn't want in the house. So they'd change at the door. This is our 5th year with this flock, and nobody has gotten sick yet.

By "throughout the week," I meant symptoms started I think Sunday, peaked Monday, but has improved everyday after. Not sending my kid to the doctor if I'm seeing improvement and he's acting fine otherwise.

It was definitely a mistake to put the brooder in the kitchen in the first place. Chalk that up to being a nervous beginner with chicks. The only other place I had space for them was in the garage, which at the time I worried would be too cold as it's not well insulated. There's only one outlet in the garage and the power strip connected to it is already overloaded and has a tendency to trip, so didn't want to risk it tripping while needing the heat plate. At this time of year, temperatures vary a lot. A few days ago, we had a cold front go through and some hail. Today, the high reached 79F. In a few days, the nighttime lows are going to be in the 30s.

The chicks are more like 5.5 weeks and are mostly feathered. I reached out to this page recently about putting them outside and received feedback saying to acclimate them first, so I put them in the garage about a week ago. I definitely could have put them in the garage sooner as their feathers were (and are still) coming in, but like I said, chalk it up to being a nervous rookie.

I appreciate you sharing your routine with your kids. It makes me feel better knowing I'm not being dramatic with the precautions I more recently implemented.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Salmonella is spread through dirty conditions. Like a large commercial enterprise. It is in the air.

Salmonella is throughout nature. It thrives in poop. Chicks poop, and live where they poop. Let's bash large commercial enterprises when they take precautions we don't about diseases and parasites that are in nature.

If your chicks have not been exposed to nature they are unlikely to have been exposed to salmonella. But if they have been where birds or other critters poop they may have. Salmonella is not everywhere in nature but it can be about anywhere. There are many different strains of Salmonella, some so mild you won't notice, some really strong.

The general recommendation is to keep your hands away from your face when you handle chickens until you can wash your hands. That's a good precaution about several things.

 

[FrostRanger]

I think he probably just contracted a random stomach bug. Those are going around rn. Got hit hard myself with one a couple of weeks ago. I think he'd probably have been a lot sicker if it was salmonella. All the precautions you have in place sound sane so just keep doing what you're doing!