I also use pine shavings or cedar. I like the smell of the cedar better. I live in Portland and even though my pin is covered I rake out the old stuff weekly. The water blows in sometimes. All in all I like the shavings and the girls love it when I clean it out. If there was lots of rain sometimes I will just through in a few handfuls to soak up some of the water and for them to be walking on dry shavings instead of wet ground.
I was using shavings in the run too until chicken chick turned me on to sand, it keeps the stench down better. We have a small coop and we pick it up and move it, I have two sand spots the size of the coop. We pick it up shovel the spilled food and droppings out then put fresh sand over that patch. Then in a couple of weeks move it back to that spot and clean the other the same way. We live in the city too and there is an ordinance about smell plus we're outside a lot in the summer and so are our neighbors. Someone else with a stationary coop fashioned a giant scoop out of a rake and hardware cloth.
