I had been using shavings and had no problems with it except for being messy. I switched over to sand now and have been using it in my coops for about 6 months. So far, so good. I clean the poop board every day and in my small coop, I also clean the sand floor everyday. In my big coop, I occasionally sift or scoop some of the sand and of course clean poop board and roosts every day. I still use shaving in my nesting boxes. I think it is easier to clean than shavings but I also miss the nice wood smell. I do not have odor problems with the sand. I use DE mixed into all my sand including sand boxes outside.
I love the sand in my brooder boxes because it takes me 2 minutes to run a reptile scoop through it and it looks like new. Also use DE in those.
I would love to try wood pellets but my large coop would take some work to clean out all of the bedding. I do not know how I will clean out all the sand and replace it as it is very heavy and my coop is an 8X10 floor area. I do have sheet flooring underneath tacked down with quarter round on the edges so nothing gets down to the plywood floor. The pellets would be lighter to deal with than the sand. Oh well, maybe I will try the pellets in one of my grow out cages that has a pan underneath. I like to be able to get the droppings out of the material that I use and with the size of the pellets, I don't know about that.
I have tried the corrugated paper on top of sand as a nesting material and it was ok because the matts of droppings lifted easily in a clump of the paper and then the rest fell down to the sand. It has its uses. We are always looking for easier ways to keep our chickens clean but I just do not like the thought of the droppings staying in with the chickens (composting). I do my composting in a compost bin outside.
