How to stop contamination from other chicken owners...

[Kuntry Klucker]

I use bleach. Fill a small rubbermade tub with water and bleach. Dip your shoes before you enter the chickens living quarters. You can also use lysol if you don't have bleach on hand.

I also bleach any new tools that I buy for the chicken coop and yard. Never share tools with other chicken keepers.

 

[Deb T]

I use bleach. Fill a small rubbermade tub with water and bleach. Dip your shoes before you enter the chickens living quarters. You can also use lysol if you don't have bleach on hand.

What is the ratio of bleach to water?

 

[Kuntry Klucker]

What is the ratio of bleach to water?

I make it pretty strong. For a rubbermade tote large enough to dip a pair of rubber boots in I will use a half if bottle. I only use the bleach solution when I am using boots I just bought for the first time and tools that I just bought for the first time. If I have guests I have them wear coop shoes I have set aside for that purpose or ask them to put sterile booties over their shoes. Most do not mind, they don't want to get chicken poop all over their shoes anyway.

 

[Kiki]

This is a good thread!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I have been to a breeders' farm and had to meet him at the gate, and wasn't allowed to set foot inside (he said due to contamination etc-?) I'm wondering if that is a load of bull... or if I should be worried about my kids having playdates at friends houses who are chicken owners and the kids hanging out in the chicken coop, and then coming home and going to our coop, or having her friends come over and play with the birds in the coop/barn and then head home to their birds.

How do you handle this sort of thing if you live in a rural place where a lot of people have animals?
Getting kids to change or wash footwear isn't really realistic IMO.
Thanks

Many Integrated chicken keepers. (Commercial flock growers) will sick Law Enforcement onto anyone who breaches their bio security border and I don't blame them. Wild birds are a big enough problem without allowing well meaning but ignorant people to tromp all over your ground and spread every chicken pathogen known to man. And to top it all off these flock growers don't even own the chickens in their chicken houses, the chickens are the property of the integrater. Now unless you, your spouse, and your family stand to lose their jobs, house, savings, farm, investments, and lively hood if some shoo nasty nasty chicken disease turns up then it is understandable that you don't take bio-security seriously.

 

[feedman77]

I don't do any bio security but I'm not npip. The amount of wildlife and birds I have around my farm and flock is abundant. I'm
Liable to have 10000 plus wild geese less than 50 yards from my chickens. In a field they range in.


I free range my flock most of the year. So they come in contact with who knows what while they do that. Plus I like to go to swaps and auctions for birds. If I had strict bio security protocols it would remove that enjoyment part of birds for me.

I kinda raise mine via survival of the fittest. I want them exposed to everything to build a tolerance. Then if I hatch eggs out of my birds maybe tolerance will be passed to chicks.

So follow what protocol for security you want. That gives you a good feeling towards your birds. But to be totally bio secure your birds would have to be contained in a secure building with no outside contact.

 

[Minky]

Thanks @feedman77 .
I have 3 kids under 7 and about 5 different families of wild turkey that come spring, will be grazing the same fields as my hens. Now i have a rooster- so that may change!? LOL I am sort of like you- survival of the fittest... but I will make a habit of washing my hands and boots (and my kids boots) before and after any trips to others farms or barns.

 

[bobbi-j]

As with any other aspect of chicken keeping, we all have our comfort zones. I totally understand a breeder or someone with a lot of money heavily invested in their flocks practicing tighter bio security than maybe an everyday small flock owner. We all have to make our choices as to what works for us.

 

[lazy gardener]

When flock owners come to my yard, they are allowed in my yard. But not in my coop or run. I had a customer who wanted to come in my run to "help catch" the birds she was taking home. I had to be firm and tell her that she could watch, but she needed to stay outside my run. This is for the safety of my flock as well as the safety of the visitor. I don't want to wonder or worry about how my roo is going to react to a stranger in my run when the girls are being "caught". Nor, do I want to wonder how a stranger is going to interact with my birds. And, what ever is on the shoes of my visitors does not belong in my chicken run.

I perfectly understand the flock owner who wouldn't allow visitors past his front yard!!!

 

[aart]

When flock owners come to my yard, they are allowed in my yard. But not in my coop or run.

I make them stay in the driveway, bird has been chosen and crated before they arrive.