E-coli danger from washing chicken treat dishes in kitchen sink?

[suebee]

Good idea!! I'll just start putting the chickens in the dishwasher!

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
LOL. you're not alone!

 

[speckledhen]

Ooops, nope, I wash my chickens in my laundry sink in the bsmt, not the dishwasher, LOL! Bet they'd protest that one!

 

[arlee453]

Getting on my soapbox now.....warning....

I think killing germs is overrated.

Frankly, I'm just not that worried. The key is to cook foods thoroughly and watch for cross-contamination - IE wash your hands after handling raw meats before touching clean plates or serving utensiles. I think of it as dirty surfaces stay dirty and clean stay clean (well, you know what I mean) - just plain old common sense precautions without going overboard with bleaching every thing in sight.

I swear my kitchen sink is a science experiment most of the time and my house is NOT clean. Having said that, I wouldn't put clean dishes in the sink where I washed out the chicken pans, or had raw meat sitting.

Aside from my husband who has a weak immune system and some chronic health problems (his mom was a neat freak too...hmmmm...) my family is the healthiest I know. Heck I used to catch my youngest eating out of the garbage when he was a toddler (not encouraged by mom, of course...) and he's the healthiest kid I've got - stuff that keeps other kids out of school with a high fever for days hits him with a couple hours' low-grade fever and then he's fine.

The people I know with sick kids all the time are also the ones who don't let their kids play in dirt, keep them away from other sick kids and have a spotless house.

I also think a lot of 'germ-phobia' is generated from media and commercials that make MONEY off of selling us stuff that will 'kill germs'. Of course they need to create a demand for their product, so they tell us all these scary things about GERMS ARE EVERYWHERE. Yep.. they are. But the vast majority of germs in the environment are either inoccuous (will not cause problems for people) or actually HELPFUL to su. Only a very, very small percentage cause serious illness in healthy people.

Saw a report the other day on TV about germs on lemons that are cut to put in drinks. Before the commercial break... 'after the break, see what is LURKING on those LEMONs in your sweet tea...' Turns out someone did a graduate school project on culturing the germs they found on lemons. Guess what....there are GERMS on LEMONS....

Great big headline to gross everyone out. Only guess what else...after they got done telling how almost 100% of the samples had bacteria on them and how gross that was they finally did quickly mention right at the end that only a couple of the samples had any germs that could actually make you sick - the vast majority had germs that were completely harmless.

Still...that headline grabbed attention and enticed everyone to sit through the commerical breaks, didn't it??

I think there is something to be said for a healthy exposure to normal pathogens in your environment....

...getting down off soapbox now.


or maybe that's just my excuse for being lax on housework...hmmmm....

 

[silkiechicken]

Arlee, I agree with your statements. If it wasn't for our bodies being constantly covered in bacteria, in and out, competing for space and resources on us, a single bad bacteria could have a hay day. If we as a culture never washed our hands, we would have never needed to develop the polio vaccine. Of course there were tons of other stuff that was in trade off though.

I knew someone who asked me why their fish kept dying... turned out they cleaned the tank so much and "disinfected it" to keep germs out... it killed the fish and was coudy because the effectively killed off all the beneficial bacteria too.

I'm long overdue for E coli, or some sort of sickness from sharing food with chickens and eating things off the floor...

 

[MissPrissy]

I agree with you, Arlee! My kids are rarely sick.

You know these cute lil geese I hatched? They swim and poop in my sink. I wash their poopy swimming pool/rubber tub in my sink too.

The first day my youngest DD was like "Ugggh, you are washing that in the kitchen sink?"

I said "They are my babies. I hatched them upstairs. Any germs they have we gave to them. They came out of a sterile egg."

I stand by that too. Now when they are pooping like grown dogs and running across the yard I might not be so liberal about my sink but for now they are babies and they eat what I give them. How much more gross and germ infested can they be?

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Quote:
She'll show us that technique during our summer camp session "Chicken Washing 101".

 

[eggzettera]

I beg to differ with Suebee (not Miss Prissy as originally posted) - chickens should be done in the washer on the gentle/delicate cycle....

The only cleaning ingredients I use regularly (excluding random bizarreness like saddle soap for leather couches, etc):

Ammonia
Bleach
Laundry soap (actually given to me by neighbor - haven't bought laundry, dish soap, fabrci sheets or fabric softner since I bought this house)
Dish soap
Dishwasher Detergent
Vinegar - also used in the dishwasher in the "rinse" clean space


I guess I got into the habit of keeping my sink excessively clean (I am way more lax these days) is when my older sister taught me to make bread in the sink. Reasons were: ease of wash up & height (we are not tall people), so it became I admit a compulsive habit @ 1 point in my life.

I agree that people buy/sold way to much disposable junk that we simple do not need. However after saying all that I will continue to clean my sink 1X/week with bleach. The sink is where you go to clean & to me you need to start with a clean area.....I guess to my reactions are also based on seeing the extreme opposite, when I was a teenager a girlfriend whose parents who were cockny had geese, a horse (just once on the horse mind you) and dog kennels in their "house" you can imagine what the kitchen looked like.....

Edit to properly give credit.....

 

[DrakeMaiden]

My list is the same as yours MQN, except I use borax and baking soda a lot too.

 

[eggzettera]

Quote:
Cool, for why? The only real time I use baking soda is with vinegar to clean drains/pipes.....so what are you using them for?