thinking of a litter change for the coop, suggestions?

[confusedturtle]

I have been trying to get thru to the coffee roaster place near my house and so far I have left a few messages and not spoken to any real people yet. I definitely want to switch though. The hay is easy to use and light weight but the girls have spread it all around the coop and run and within 2 days of adding it I can begin to smell the poop and change it out by the 2nd or 3rd day. I know it isn't going to smell like a bunch of fresh cut flowers in there but I want to do anything I can to keep the smells away. I think I will go out tomorrow and buy some of the equine pine/pine pellet stuff and use that until I can get thru to the coffee roaster in my area. Would have done it today but the kids are in their last week of school and get out so early that I just can't seem to get anything done before it is time to pick them up from school. I know if I dont get it done during the week and I take the kids with me on a weekend and they have baby chicks for sale......I will be in trouble

Thanks for all of the advice & suggestions, I am writting it all down so that if I try something and decide I (or the girls) prefer something else we can give it a shot.

Oh Yeah...LoL @ #51 is a name

 

[ParadiseChickens]

I love my coffee but somehow I just dont think I would like the smell of it mixed with any smell that might develop with the chickens. I use sand in both my coop and my run and I love it. We put down bags of Quikrete All Purpose Sand. I'm sure we could have gotten it cheaper but hubby just didnt think the local concrete plants would sell us a pickup load and then again he didnt want to shovel it out if they did soooo we got the bags. I used pine shavings when they were little before the coop was finished and I hated it.

 

[pelicanchook]

Being a newbie, I've only just found this topic, so I hope I'm not too late to add my comments. I have used a deep layer of wood (pine) shavings from day one with my girls - I get bags and bags of the shavings free from a local woodworking factory that makes wooden presentation boxes for wine bottles. They stay lovely and dry - I've recently added food grade diatomaceous earth to the shavings, to keep down pests, although I must admit that I have never had any kind of pests on my girls, again since day one. I open up the dormitory to fresh air every day, and toss the shavings so the lumps of poo drop through, and only change the litter every three months. (And then that makes for wonderful mulch/compost on my garden). I don't get any nasty ammonia smells, and now that its winter in Australia, I notice that the girls are making deep nests and cuddling up to each other, so I am guessing that the wood shavings are keeping them warm as well.
I notice one response said not to use cedar shavings - can anyone tell me why?

 

[ChestnutRidge]

Quote:
I've read that the natural oils in the wood are irritating and can cause asthma-like symptoms.
Here's a bit of an article: http://www.aracnet.com/~seagull/faq/whynotcedar.html