My mom says its because I went barefoot all the time when I was younger ( until 45?). I hate wearing shoes!
and now it's good trainers and socks all the time or my foot swells ; which makes it hard to have separate indoor and outdoor shoes so this time of year I end up with swollen feet ALOT.
(I think the grammar police will come for me now! Oops.
I'm with Emzyyy...I have a pair of big pink croc clogs and the hens are just fascinated with them, especially if they see my toes thru the holes. They'll follow me all over the yard and watch my feet! I couldn't figure out the fascination until my son confessed that he had put worms in the shoes once when they were left on the patio and watched the chickens try to get them out of the holes in the tops......mystery solved.
I wear shoes in the coop. My kids don't go barefoot either but for other reasons. Before I moved to Texas ants were a barely noticed annoyance, now they are a painful and nasty threat. Fireants changed my shoe wearing policy, and I rarely go barefoot anymore. I grew up not wearing shoes, and never wear shoes indoors. I grew up in a wet snowy climate, and everyone took their shoes off when they came inside.
That being said, if I still went barefoot, I'd still wear shoes in the coop. Chickens have an unnatural interest in toes, and chicken poo squishes.
Just thinking about what THEY might be tracking in the house, lord knows they MUST be laying in it too... and they are/were couch dogs. Not so much lately. Mostly because the big dog is getting too big, but its kinda creeping me out that they might be little poo magnets and I'm not typically a clean freak either. Not sure how I wanna deal with this knowledge, thinking a permanent run or a tractor area that I can hose down and clean up. Right now they share the backyard with the dogs mostly. Anyone else adjusting to this? I feel bad for not feeling as snuggly with my pooches, and cringe when they wanna jump up on the bed, etc.
My father and his family back in the 1940's had chickens and yep all of them went barefooted in the coop to collect eggs. It didnt bother them any and they had built up immunity as well. Never got sick either. They didnt wash them either!
However back in those days, you only had a bath every Saturday with ONE wash tub with ONE hot bathwater among eight kids living there.
Today I would not advise it but if it floats your boat, go for it!
I wear mucking boots, much easier to deal with than trying to clean off your good shoes.
Quote:
Our youngest son got married a few weeks back (yay!) and came back to visit us, along with our new daughter-in-law (Keeley), yesterday. They came down to see/ help me feed the chickens and Keeley stood right up against the wire netting. I hadn't noticed she had open-toed sandals on, and her toenails painted red. and the hens immediately pecked them hard - made her jump! ;-) We had a good laugh about it, and I explained that chickens are attracted to bright red colours which made her toes almost irresistible to them!