Official BYC Poll: Do You Wear a Mask or Respirator When Cleaning Your Coop?

[user651618]

If it gets bad, I will occasionally pull my t shirt over my nose.

 

[Valalilly]

When I'm spreading diatomaceous earth for sure. Otherwise generally not.

 

[June85]

I never do. I use to when sprinkling the coop and run with diatomaceous earth. I find myself in a unique situation where my chickens don’t really use the coop or run only to lay eggs. They sleep in our trees, and the property is all sand and fruit trees so they can dust bath wherever whenever, they fertilize our trees everyday, and even when I do clean the nesting boxes there’s no need since it’s out in the open. I consider my self very lucky and blessed with 40 chickens my experience has been very low maintenance.

 

[Desibri]

My chickens mostly free range and roost in a tree. But if they were in an enclosed coop, even with good ventilation, I would definitely wear a mask. I live in Hawaii and there are plenty zoonotic pathogens that can be kicked into the air for me to breathe in while cleaning a coop.

 

[aimlesschicken]

I do not wear a mask when I clean the coop...I clean it once a month. I open the coop's 2 doors and both windows when I clean the coop. I use sand in the coop so the dust is at a minimum.

 

[Doodle Dew]

I'm unable to wear a mask due to confinement/claustrophobia issues. If I did not have these issues I would wear a mask.

 

[Atlas The Chicken Tender]

I don't wear one whenever I'm not going to be stirring up dust, but whenever I do a litter change, you best believe I'm masking up!

 

[brandy21c]

View attachment 3746024

We all know how much dust those birds can create, so I'm just wondering who wears some kind of respiratory protection when they are in and around the coop - and when!

Have you had any issues from not wearing a mask?

Please vote and leave a comment below!

i have on occasions but not always I do think it's better for you to wear something especially if your asthmatic

 

[LaLa Slatty]

I have ducks. Not sure if that is as bad as chickens when it comes to their coop dust. When I was a kid we had chickens and after a chest exray the Dr. Said to my dad "It looks like you clean chicken coops for a living." So after that he wore a ski mask everytime he cleaned the coop and never let us clean it again(that did not upset me at all). It can cause a lot of lung problems. I added an example of what my dad looked like anytime of year cleaning the chicken coop. We used to give him a hard time about it

 

[kismit]

i wear a k95 when i'm doing more than checking over the birds or filling their water. why?
because i didn't used to, because i didn't know better. my snot would be black with dust from the coop after cleaning with a kerchief over my nose. what is coop dust? mostly? its Poop Dust. why would i breathe that in on purpose when i have a choice about it?