I acquired my hens in the summer of 2010. Based on the information I read here, and the fact that I have a wood shop, I put wood shavings on the floor of my hen house. The hen house is 10' by7' inside, and I have 11 birds. The wood shavings (4" deep) with occasional DE worked well for a while. After a few months, with daily cleanings, it began to get dusty in the house and the wood shavings were not particularly "kitty litter scooper" friendly. I was throwing out a lot of wood shavings with the poop. When I couldn't take the dust level in the house any more I shoveled it all out and was going to start over. After shoveling it out I decided this would be a good time to try sand instead of wood shavings. I'm not sure how to best convey this message but I'll give it a try, SWITCH TO SAND. There is no comparison. The sand is much easier to maintain. Odor is down. Dust is down. Poop, clumps and scoops easier. When I step out of my hen house I no longer have poop and wood shavings caked to my shoes. I'm one of those guys that needs to be hit over the head with a new idea before I'll change what I've been doing. If you think you might be like that also, then consider this a smack to the back of your head, SWITCH TO SAND. I telling you, there's no comparison. It takes half as much time as it used to, to clean out the house. It takes 30 seconds to rake the floor with a garden rake to reveal the clumps that need to be scooped. I have a board under the main perch which catches most of the poop. I use the kitty litter scoop to dust the board with sand so poops don't stick to it. It takes less than 5 minutes a day to keep the hen house very clean. I don't know if the hens are happier, but I definitely am.
