Shavings in a covered run ? Anyone do this?

[karlamaria]

We have an amazing covered run , iit is totally dry all year round, my question is, can shavings be ok to use in the run? I do not want to add sand , but am looking at an alternative to sand. Right now it's just dirt, but I hate raking the poo and all the dirt up in it. It does not stink, it's never gotten wet, so I was wondering if anyone uses shavings and if so why and is it easy to clean up, and if not what do you use besides sand and why?
Thanks

 

[curiositykt]

I made the garden coop, which gives me an amazing dry covered run. I put in a cube of pine shavings every week or so (5 chickens) and they compact it down nicely each week so it hasn't gotten crazy yet. I am now also putting in grass clippings to suppliment the pine shavings and provide them some bugs to root around for. The biggest problem I've seen with this method is that they don't have anywhere to dust bathe. I'm thinking about adding a plastic container in there with dirt for that.

The bottom of my run is dirt, with pea gravel around the edges since they kept trying to dig out. I plan to clean it out once it gets to the door frame, but they keep compacting it down so it hasn't happened yet. It doesn't smell at all.

In their hen house the floor is sand, this can be raked to the floor of the run where it quickly blends into the wood chips.

I also spread some scratch on the run floor most days to keep them churning the floor.