Separate shoes for chicken run?

[Happy Novogens]

In process of building my run/coop but have been seeing talk of separate shoes for walking inside chicken run. (We are in AZ desert.) Is this something that is commonplace and everyone does?

We plan to only have 2 or 3 hens in a 10' x 20' run. I'm just imagining days of old where people had free run chickens in their yards and went about their daily business on the homestead without changing shoes, etc. everytime they were around chickens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is this something that is commonplace and everyone does?

I have shoes I slip on whenever I go outside just so I don't track a mess in the house. In the house I wear house shoes. It's not to do with chickens specifically, it's about tracking trash in the house from the chickens, from working in the garden, cutting the grass, or doing about anything else outside. I also have certain shoes I wear when out in the general public. My work shoes aren't exactly meant for public display. My work clothes aren't either.

I think where you may have heard that was in discussions of biosecurity and quarantine. You can track diseases or parasites from one flock to another if you wear the same shoes. You can even transmit certain diseases or parasites on your clothes. The big commercial chicken operations may not only require you to change your shoes when you show up for work but maybe your clothes too. You may even be required to take a shower. Trucks delivering supplies or hauling chickens away for processing or eggs for shipment may need to drive through a tire wash to sanitize their wheels. Hatcheries may have similar requirements. People whose livelihood depends on keeping their chickens healthy usually take biosecurity very seriously.

Some of us take biosecurity that seriously but most don't. But many of us do change shoes when we go take care of the chickens for various reasons.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

I do because i dont wanna bring home other diseases from feed stores etc

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I have two pairs of chicken run boots-one for rain and one for dry weather. I dont care how hot it is, nobody wants to track cecal poop in the house

 

[southwestclucker]

I wear my muck boots in the run 90+ percent of the time, and need to 100% of the time, but that's only because when I don't wear them, Floof (my sapphire gem) makes a BEELINE toward my feet and it makes me really nervous, lol.......

 

[MadGardener]

It's nice to not worry about chicken poo falling off my boots in public. A cheap pair of rubber boots and a boot brush by the door suit me well.

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

I have always had outdoor shoes. Then along came the chooks and I have a pair of TOMS that I just slip on as I go out the back door. Now that It's flower season I have my front yard shoes too. I also have a long rug at the back door from Costco that is very inexpensive and will change it out soon. My chicken shoes don't go off the rug. To be honest I am worried about the avian flu. I even worry about the people who mow my lawn tracking in other germs.

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Before my dogs ate it, I had a specific toilet brush (never been used for the toilet) kept by our boots so we could fish for spiders before we put our backyard footwear on.

 

[Sara S]

In process of building my run/coop but have been seeing talk of separate shoes for walking inside chicken run. (We are in AZ desert.) Is this something that is commonplace and everyone does?

We plan to only have 2 or 3 hens in a 10' x 20' run. I'm just imagining days of old where people had free run chickens in their yards and went about their daily business on the homestead without changing shoes, etc. everytime they were around chickens.

Well it can depend on if you want to get poop on your shoes or not. I personally change shoes but it’s your preference on if you want to. I’d say it’s better since poop isn’t exactly clean


have fun with your new chickens!!!

 

[3KillerBs]

I have rubber muck boots for chicken chores and other mucky yardwork and keep them just barely inside my back door (I've had bad results with keeping yardwork clothes outside -- you only share your shoes with a palmetto bug or put on a pair of garden gloves that have a wasp in the fingertip ONCE).

I don't like tracking poop into the house. It doesn't just fall off when dry -- it hardens like concrete.

If Avian Flu becomes a serious risk here (rather than a moderate concern), I will have to get a pair of crocks or some such thing that I can easily shake bugs out of to keep next to the coop.

Yes, our great-grandparents worried less about such things, but in our great-grandparents day it was also common for people to die of illnesses that we readily treat today.

For example, a bought of Salmonella, etc. today will make national news and result in massive recalls and processing plant shutodowns. Back then people got sick and sometimes died of "food poisoning" and no one thought twice because it was a normal life event.