Straw or Shavings

[pinkhistorycat]

I use shavings plus a sprinkle of food grade diatomaceous earth. So far its working great with no smell at all. I clean it out about once every four months. Added benefit of taking care of any small pests my chickens may have picked up while they were outside scrounging around!

 

[mickey328]

IMO, it's a personal choice. We started with straw, cuz it's what we had. We're using shavings now because we got a great deal on about 10 bags of it. When that gets low, we'll see what's available, LOL

 

[bald egg]

Shavings. Straw compacts holds moisture and smells funny. Shavings can be fluffed with a hoe which adds insulation value to the floor. They smell clean. Plus they stay dry which keeps the girls healthy. Shavings are the way to go.

 

[Moodyblues7718]

I think shavings are better although Cedar can cause problems internally with all animals I personally use Straw or Hay only cause thats what I use with my equine

 

[chicken gal]

I found straw is really hard to clean unless you remove it all. I started using regular pine shavings and just switched to the finer ground shavings. I can now clean daily without having to remove a lot of the shavings so they last a little a longer. I only have 4 pullets though so it's probably a little easier for me . I just use a cat litter scoop and remove the poo.

I know it is really hard to get all of the straw out.

 

[chicken gal]

Shavings. Straw compacts holds moisture and smells funny. Shavings can be fluffed with a hoe which adds insulation value to the floor. They smell clean. Plus they stay dry which keeps the girls healthy. Shavings are the way to go.

I know what you mean. It does have a mucky smell.

 

[Nevada Sun]

I use mainly straw with alittle shavings mixed in, it helps with the smell too and I don't find it hard to clean my coop with all the straw, I use a snow shovel as well and a pitch fork!! I have 18 chickens and clean it completely out when it smells or looks bad. We have a bobcat and use the bucket right out side the door so it is so easy to clean.. I also of course have a poop board under the perches and use pine shavings , I did try sand but didn't really like it.

 

[mickey328]

We use some Sweet PDZ in the coop whether we use straw or shavings. Just takes a little sprinkle and keeps things dry and very sweet smelling. The stuff is awesome!

 

[chicken gal]

I use mainly straw with alittle shavings mixed in, it helps with the smell too and I don't find it hard to clean my coop with all the straw, I use a snow shovel as well and a pitch fork!! I have 18 chickens and clean it completely out when it smells or looks bad. We have a bobcat and use the bucket right out side the door so it is so easy to clean.. I also of course have a poop board under the perches and use pine shavings , I did try sand but didn't really like it.

I also have a big shovel. I have a leftovers of shavings from when they were babies, so I'll use the rest of that up.

 

[nuts4hotwheels]

I use pine and it seems to work good. I have also heard of chickens getting impacted crops from eating the straw.