Keep a clean coop

[aart]

It shouldn't be necessary to wash your hands after handling a pet to keep from getting sick - they aren't plague bearers.

No... but they can/do carry salmonella,
so it's just smart to wash your hands between pet handling and eating.

 

[IamRainey]

No, the raw milk thing is actually real. Even back in the day farmers used to boil their milk before drinking it. It was common sense. And the way cows are raised nowadays in filthy factory farms, why would you want to drink that raw, it has all the poop germs in the world in it. Backyard chickens may or may not have salmonella, so kissing them isn’t a high risk. Milk on the other hand, can get contaminated in so many different ways, from feces to dirty equipment, that the risk of putting that into your body and getting sick is much higher. Because you’re actually drinking it, not just kissing the cow.

Not entirely sure what time period you're talking about but when I grew up in a dairy region of NYS in the 60s farmers did indeed drink their raw raw milk. Not saying they weren't aware of Brucella and undulant fever -- one friend's family drank it at dinner but wouldn't let me have any. They just dealt with it, pretty much putting into a perspective similar to the one I have for salmonella.

My husband and I bought raw milk from a dairy in the Los Angeles area as recently as the early 80s. They were monitored, of course, and periodically the raw milk wouldn't be available until herd sanitation was back under control. That dairy doesn't exist anymore and I doubt I'd be able to get my hands on raw milk if my life depended on it, but the prohibition on raw milk is a relatively recent phenomenon. Like disgusting feed lots. ...and I suppose those big farm factories are why it's probably good idea that we drink pasteurized. So I'm not saying abandoning raw milk is a bad idea, just that it's a more recent one.

My husband is a farm boy and I just checked his experience in a different part of NYS with him. He remembers regularly drinking milk warm from the cows and is now deeply into his nostalgia about farm life and the quality of that milk they used to dip into as they herded the cows into and out of the milking parlors and hooked them up.

 

[member 158781]

It does, doesn't it?
But it isn't really.
It will become saturated with pulverized poops and when damp will stink to high heaven.
Far from 'sanitary'.
Want to reduce flies?
Use a poop board with PDZ(zeolite) and sift out the poops daily...
...and big wood chippings in your run.

At the bottom of 2 coops I have actually just started to use outdoor artificial low grass carpet. It’s wonderful. Once a week I pull it out, wash it, dry it, sanitize it and put it back. It has never been so clean.

 

[Chicken Heel]

People tend to overthink too much about most things in the modern world. Common sense is endangered.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

All I can say is that y’all are making me want to run home and clean up my coop and run!!!

 

[Meg-in-MT]

I hate to sound like a broken record but the latest news reporting 49 states blaming their salmonella out break on Back yard chicken breeders should be of concern to all of us who raise chickens ,whether for personal use or commercial purposes.
I am not convinced there are that many states with irresponsible back yard chicken breeders .
Are they not washing their hands after they have been in the coop or handled their birds and eggs? because it's the first thing any f us in the family do.Wash your hands! Are they not cooking their eggs or chicken meat properly to a safe doneness?
Seriously can there be all of a sudden that many people in 49 states that irresponsible??
I wonder how many of them also keep reptiles?? Reptiles, snakes, lizards , turtles all reptiles are notorious salmonella carriers .
I have noticed so many times when people show pics on this or other chicken websites , that their coops and runs look pretty disgusting and less than clean.
People jut keep doing what chicken ring people have done for centuries unfortunately .
They put straw in the lay box .They have just straight on dirt or just dirt on the coop floor and run areas .
Well, you can't clean straw! and when it rains that dirt and straw in the run turns to a muddy poopy disgusting mess .YULK!
I learned after 17 years of making the mistakes, when a man I hired to build my chicken coop told me the best way to keep a coop and run area and nesting boxes clean and fly free and I have thanked him in my heart ever since .
No straw EVER ! Put pine shavings in the nesting boxes, and most importantly , "Washed Plaster Sand" on the coop and run floor . But only washed plaster sand ( about 3 bucks for a 50# bag at any Home Depot or Lowes ). Any other sand will be bad for the girls to breath . The poop will suspend on the sand and make it easy to simply rake up the poop off the top of the sand and toss in the garden or compost pile . The girls will bee able to dust bath in it it's never muddy.
My coop never smells ad I never have flies!!!! M chickens keep clean and happy !!

Out of curiosity, how many chickens do you have? I have never used sand in my coop, and I never would. I used it in my run and absolutely hated it. Now that isn't to say that no one should like it or ever use it. Things that work well for some, do not for others. But washed plaster sand isn't the end all be all of chicken coop cleanliness.

 

[21hens-incharge]

All I can say is that y’all are making me want to run home and clean up my coop and run!!!

When you're done come help me! I am scrubbing up after petting my dogs....thank goodness for the faucet you can turn on by just barely touching it!
Sooooooooo many germs!

 

[aart]

At the bottom of 2 coops I have actually just started to use outdoor artificial low grass carpet. It’s wonderful. Once a week I pull it out, wash it, dry it, sanitize it and put it back. It has never been so clean.

@ethbarry
How big are these pieces of grass carpet....and how many birds do you have?
What sanitizer do you use?
I would not want a weeks worth of coop poop piling up here with 15-20 birds.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

When you're done come help me! I am scrubbing up after petting my dogs....thank goodness for the faucet you can turn on by just barely touching it!
Sooooooooo many germs!

 

[member 158781]

All I can say is that y’all are making me want to run home and clean up my coop and run!!!

Do like me. Scrub your coop and keep it nice but let your dog eat chicken poop and give you ample kisses. That should relieve your fears. LOL