My Favorite Cleaner Gone Awry

Yesterday when I needed to clean the chicken nest boxes, I decided to use my favorite cleaning solution: a bucket of hot water with dish detergent and bleach. The dish detergent cuts the grease and grime and the bleach kills all the nasties.

Instead of lugging a bucket of hot water from the house out to the coop, I decided to use the hose, so I mixed up some concentrated bleach and dish detergent in an old squirt bottle. That was a mistake! The bleach caused the dish detergent to foam up, right out of the top of the bottle. And the bottle got hot. Hmmmm…. It would have been a cool science experiment if it didn’t stink so badly.

Apparently, Palmolive has ammonia in it. Upon further inspection, I discovered that there is fine print (which I can barely see) on the back of the bottle stating “Do not use with chlorine bleach to avoid irritating fumes”. I guess when you mix them in a big bucket of water, they are diluted enough to avoid this reaction. Still, I think I’ll look for another dish detergent that would be safer to use.

I hate to switch from Palmolive; it really is “soft on hands”. In fact, I often use it to wash my hands because it leaves my skin softer than most soaps – even the expensive ones. If I can find a dish detergent that’ll work, I’ll use it for cleaning but Palmolive will always be my kitchen sink dish detergent.