To the older eggs,a question

[jimz1]

You hear about salmonella an awful lot lately, and I was wondering if anyone has had salmonella in there chickens, or is it mostly in the egg "factories"?
We are so careful not to let the grandkids rub the chicks on their faces, like we did years ago, we make them put on hand sanitizer after,ect...
I remember as a kid,holding a fuzzy little yellow chick and rubbing it on my cheeks and nose just in awe how soft it was. It was something you just did.
I would hate for the kids to miss out on that

 

[BarefootMom]

I don't worry about it.

I think a lot of it has to do with conditions of the facility.

Just recently a turkey barn was shut down because of Bird flu--the birds didn't have it but the virus was in the ground, so the birds might have had it at one time... They said that when you walked in to the barn you could barely breathe it was so filthy and with rubber boots on the poop went up past your ankles! ugh ugh ugh!

I don't know how people treat their animals like that. (Actually I know that they obviously only care about the money they bring in...)

I let my kids play with the chicks all the time, I think it is good for both the kids and the chicks. They also play with the bunnies, the puppy, and the cat. I do have a bottle of hand sanitizer next to the brooders and in the rabbitry, but mostly for the animals sake! I know little kids carry lots of germs and I would hate to make the chicks sick--it is a lot easier to cure a cold in a kid than in a chick!

just my .02

 

[schellie69]

I just make sure mine wash up after handling the chickens since my grand kids are young I worry that they will lick the hand stuff which is almost 100% alcohol and have read reports of kids getting sick from that so just plain soap and water for us so far no problems and we let the kids pet and hold the chicks.

 

[ChickenAlgebra]

I'm not an older egg yet (almost 39), but my kids handle the animals, kiss them, whatever. I don't care. They just have to wash hands/faces when they get done.

So far, no sick kid. AND very docile animals. Like our roos who enjoy being dressed up and pushed around in a doll stroller.

 

[gritsar]

There was a very timely article recently in either GRIT magazine or Mother Earth News that showed you are more likely to get salmonella from commercial chickens/eggs than from backyard birds. Wish I could find the article online.

I have the GS wash his hands with soap and water. No sanitizer necessary. IMO, the overuse of sanitizers and general "over-cleanliness" is part of the reason why there's been an explosion of allergies in kids nowadays. A body can't build immunity to things unless it's gradually exposed to them. Washing a binkie every time it's dropped? C'mon! When my kids were little I practiced the five second rule. Yes, I've popped a dropped binky back into a baby mouth without sanitizing it first. My SD? She washes GS's hand if he even thinks about getting them dirty. Guess which kid(s) are healthier?

That's my little rant for the day.

 

[ChickenAlgebra]

Quote:
If there is visible dirt, I just rinse or wipe the stupid paci off. If it's a gross floor (like Walmart, ick), then the paci gets a full wash. Otherwise, pick it up and pop it in their mouth.

Apparently I'm bat poo crazy for doing that. My kids will become HORRIBLY ill. Erm, ok. Sure. I swear, I can't get my kids sick even if I try to. Seriously. DD6, her kindergarten class last year, out of 18 kids, 15 had really awful URI crap. The 3 kids who didn't get it - all 3 are allowed to be around dirt. Even you know, touch it and play in it.

 

[gritsar]

Here's one of the articles related to the subject:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/natu...gg-recall-know-where-your-eggs-come-from.aspx

 

[BarefootMom]

Quote:
If there is visible dirt, I just rinse or wipe the stupid paci off. If it's a gross floor (like Walmart, ick), then the paci gets a full wash. Otherwise, pick it up and pop it in their mouth.

Apparently I'm bat poo crazy for doing that. My kids will become HORRIBLY ill. Erm, ok. Sure. I swear, I can't get my kids sick even if I try to. Seriously. DD6, her kindergarten class last year, out of 18 kids, 15 had really awful URI crap. The 3 kids who didn't get it - all 3 are allowed to be around dirt. Even you know, touch it and play in it.

lol I have been known to just pop a paci in my mouth to wash it off

I wasn't too concerned about that stuff. And yes my kids eat after each other and us...we all drink out of the same straw sometimes...

germs don't bother me.

I do like the purell hand sanitizer though- we keep it out in the barn for when handling the baby animals.