Personal hygiene when owning chickens and other animals

[Red Horse]

I have one pair of boots I wear around the chickens and in the yard, I never wear my street shoes out there in case I bring something home. Those boots stay in the mud room, never in the house. Poopy clothes from holding chickens/cleaning have their own basket and go in their own load into the washer. Hands get washed before and after everytime I handle anything chicken related, only in one sink in the house.

They have their own cleaning bucket and scrub brushes (one for the outside of water buckets, separate one for the inside). Eggs have their own cleaning bucket which isn't used for anything else. They have their own pitchfork/rake and a cart which hooks up to the back of our lawnmower which we dump at the back of the property when it's full and don't use it for anything else.

If I have treats for them they go in my pocket to hand-feed or if someone needs something special like a mash, recycled sour cream/take out containers that I can pitch afterward to avoid washing it work nicely. I took just enough microbiology in school to make me paranoid.

 

[TRALALARA1]

Be at one with your environment.

A guy I know says his grandmother used to send him outside to find a big glob of chicken poop. She told him it had to have the white stuff (uric acid) on it. Then, she would eat it. Nobody knows for sure, but it is thought to have been used for constipation.

 

[ChicFil- A]

Okay, I was definitely waiting to see if people would respond before I did, to make sure I'm not gross or something. I do have general "outside chores" boots and "clothes to be messy in", but that's really it.Then I wash my hands when I come in.

I don’t do anything extra, wash my hands and I usually don’t get messy just gathering eggs and a tidy up, Just hand washing!

 

[Duckduckgoosie]

I usually end up doing the daily poop shelf tidy early, so often in my pajamas, which maybe isn’t the best idea.

Just reorganized the “coop boots” pile (me & my kid’s). They sit on a designated mat on the back porch. I drive myself crazy needing something from inside but I’m in my chicken boots

Wash hands after anything chicken related.

I try not to eat in/leave the house in clothes I’ve been holding chickens in.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I have coop area shoes that I try not to track around the house too much. In the winter it's hard to avoid because I have to get water for the flock from the kitchen sink. I have chicken pants and a hoodie. I wash my hands after doing chicken-related things in case I end up touching food afterwards. But...I have a flock of feathered hug demons, and those chicken clothes are mostly so my regular clothes don't get covered in little brown chicken footprints or get holes pecked in them from my rooster boys when they want attention. I sit with my flock in the run each morning and have a cup of coffee with them. Some of them get to come sit with me in the house if their feet aren't muddy. Several of them prefer to greet me by rubbing their faces all over my face. I think I'm doing the chicken hygiene thing about as well as people who let their dogs lick their whole face, LOL.

The one time I had to do a quarantine with a bird I was quite a bit more careful than that. Fully separate clothes, rigorous cleaning of myself and tools after in/out of the room, and definitely no face smooshes. That was to protect the other chickens though, not me.

 

[3KillerBs]

In the winter it's hard to avoid because I have to get water for the flock from the kitchen sink.

I don't have severe winters, but when I don't want to use my hosecocks outside because it's below freezing I adopt advice given by many people who do have meaningful winters and carry the water out in a jug.

 

[sdm111]

My hands get washed as I'm washing eggs. They get washed however clean they are if going to be eaten. That's about it. Although all mine are in dome pens so I normally don't go in the pens. If for some reason I do it's still with my regular shoes.

 

[NagemTX]

I wash hands and have shoes for the coop that get left outside at the backdoor.

 

[janiedoe]

I have coop area shoes that I try not to track around the house too much. In the winter it's hard to avoid because I have to get water for the flock from the kitchen sink. I have chicken pants and a hoodie. I wash my hands after doing chicken-related things in case I end up touching food afterwards. But...I have a flock of feathered hug demons, and those chicken clothes are mostly so my regular clothes don't get covered in little brown chicken footprints or get holes pecked in them from my rooster boys when they want attention. I sit with my flock in the run each morning and have a cup of coffee with them. Some of them get to come sit with me in the house if their feet aren't muddy. Several of them prefer to greet me by rubbing their faces all over my face. I think I'm doing the chicken hygiene thing about as well as people who let their dogs lick their whole face, LOL.

The one time I had to do a quarantine with a bird I was quite a bit more careful than that. Fully separate clothes, rigorous cleaning of myself and tools after in/out of the room, and definitely no face smooshes. That was to protect the other chickens though, not me.

No judgement, but I'm sure mine would murder me, just to see what was in my cup.
I drink my coffee on the back porch, while the flock lines up at the fence line and gives me pathetic looks.
I've been chasing my speckled sussex hen away, from my stray cat's bowl for 15 minutes, just so he can eat. ( She comes over the fence whenever I open their run to the chicken yard.) She is very food motivated and persistent.

 

[David61]

you would figure that people be wearing masks, gloves, A or B suits because of bird-flu being like Chinese bat-flu.