Touching a bird feather

[user19888891]

DH came home from work and I’ve had the kids all day. We’d been out in the garden and some of the toys were lying out. Almost instantly after looking out the window he says ‘I hope they weren’t playing with that feather’. To which I said ‘why?’ And he said ‘because it’s fucking disgusting’. So I said yes they had and it’s not a problem. He then said he wasn’t talking about it any further, or words to that effect, then proceeds to go out to the garden straight away to lift the feather with a bit of kitchen roll and put it in the bin. To be clear, this was a loose feather found in the garden, appears to be from a seagull. It wasn’t from a carcass or roadkill etc.
I really don’t see this issue? The kids are young and like exploring and they cleaned their hands when they got in. I think his reaction is quite odd because he seemed to think I was being outrageous for allowing this to happen? Who is being unreasonable?

He’s nuts. Children have picked up feathers since time began.

Is this a man thing? Because my dad always said the same and dh said it once too. We used to definitely pick up bird feathers we found and as you said we’d have washed our hands afterwards but both would go on about diseases

You’re not unreasonable, he is.

Kids pick up crap constantly.

DH is weird

I wouldn't pick up random bird feathers or bits of animal fur.

Wild animals have parasites and mites and various unpleasant bacteria and are best left alone.

And while you may wash your hands afterwards, your kids may stick their fingers in their mouths or hair before they wash them, or transfer stuff to their clothes.

Still, I doubt whether they are likely to die from the experience.

I agree that we have all likely picked up feathers as children, but with modern knowledge, I wouldn't think its a good thing at all. How old are the children? Could they have licked their hands, put their hand in their hair before they were washed? I'd be concerned about mites or bird flu. How do you know the feather wasn't from a diseased bird?

The virus that causes bird flu can stay infectious in faeces, carcases and feathers for around 50 days
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bird-flu-avian-influenza-housing-your-birds-safely#:~:text=Your%20outdoor%20area%20may%20be,feathers%20for%20around%2050%20days.

I wouldn't encourage it, and would stop them and tell them to wash their hands, but I wouldn't worry about it either. The chances of catching anything worrying are low, assuming no bird flu in the area. Children (and adults) have always picked up feathers.

I've picked up a feather before and didn't bother to wash my hands after

He's mad as a hatter.

He might perhaps have overstated his case but I would give the bird feather a steer too

I’m super lax with things like this usually but my DH recently kicked up a fuss about the kids playing with feathers because of increased avian flu. He’s NHS so does see the shit end of these things.

Can’t be much dirtier than the many other things they touch. Do you have pets?

We used to collect pheasant feathers. never washed our hands. I even remember having to take one in to make a quill at primary school. Never caught any diseases or got mites, in fact I don't think avian mites can survive for long if they're not on a bird. It's also very rare for bird flu to pass to humans. Honestly people are so over protective these days, thinking that it's healthier to always be obsessively clean, washing hands every 5 minutes:

'Astonishing pieces of research such as Hunt for the Origin of Allergy and Innate Immunity and Asthma Risk have compared genetically homogenous groups that have strikingly different lifestyles – respectively, the urbanised Finnish and rural Russian populations of Karelia, and children on traditional Amish and more industrialised Hutterite farms in the US – and how they show huge disparities in the prevalence of allergy. This science shows that it’s the distance from, and lack of exposure to, natural environments that is driving the allergy epidemic in modern life.'

No wonder there's an allergy epidemic when even a feather on the ground is considered dirty and diseased. I remember reading that people were being encourage not to wash their hands after stroking their pets to try to improve the situation.

I'm in the avoid touching bird feather camp.
Has the quill end been in the bird's skin? I assume it has.

I wouldn't like my kids playing or touching feathers (same kind of category as "dead animals" in my mind)

Nothing inherently bad about it but I would make sure I washed my hands.

Well, seems a little over the top to me! What on earth has happened to people that they are so fearful now of anything natural, you name it, spiders, ants, bats, beetles, mice, any living thing! All of which were here long before Homo sapiens, and will hopefully still be here long after we have gone. And now, ye gods, an inanimate piece of animal tissue is so 'disgusting' that a grown adult has to use a tissue to pick it up and foment at the thought of diseases, bacteria and instant death, or, at the very least, serious illness.

As a child I used to love collecting natural history specimens, including bird feathers, abandoned nests, shed snake skins and animal carcasses which I would bury and allow to decompose or boil to remove the flesh in order to retrieve the skull for my collection. Still do! At the ripe old age of 60 I cannot recall ever suffering ill health or contracting a zoonotic disease from such activities. Your husband's reaction seems vastly over kill and I would actively encourage your childrens' curiosity about the natural world and all the amazing, fascinating and wonderful things with which we share it, rather than instill fear and loathing in them. Anything to encourage the younger generations to reconnect with nature.

God I remember trying to make quills with them as a kid but I was a bit strange like that. My children love finding feathers. They are always messing with sticks too. We can't walk anywhere without one of them finding and carrying a feather or a stick. They haven't come to harm because of it.

Ive kept pet chickens for 25 years, some have come in the house shock, horror. During the beast from the east, Gladys perched on my legs when I sat in my recliner, Hilda on my wife's and Queeny sat on the arm of her chair

Spoiler alert, we didn't die

People are weird about birds (and it's largely based upon historic attitudes - bird flu hasn't helped, but I reckon it's all tied in with chicken needing to be cooked through, stories of elderly people getting ill from parrots or racing pigeons and because they're wild animals who could have ticks or mites. Oh, and the shit.)

A good handwash after touching a feather is sufficient.

I think they're dirty but both my mum and MIL have encouraged my kids to "collect" feathers on walks with the kids 🤢 thanks for that, nanny. Not something I would do personally and I wouldn't want them in the house.

I would have reacted like your DH. Just because the kids might put their hands in their mouths after, or worse put in in their mouths! (Depends on age of course).

I was always told not to play with bird feathers so told my children the same.
I think bird flu has made me extra cautious too

It really repulses some people, others feel its ok (probably the majority). Nothing to see here.

All those saying the DH is reasonable - How many people do you know who have died or become ill from touching feathers?