Switched from wood shavings to sand in my coop and the smell difference is night and day

I ran pine shavings for two years and always fought ammonia smell even with weekly cleaning. Swapped to coarse builder's sand last month and the poop dries out fast so I just scoop it like a litter box. Has anyone else tried sand and found it way easier to manage than shavings?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_avery1mo ago

Oh man, sand just makes sense when you think about it... we complicate so many things in life when the simplest solution is right there. Like how people buy fancy kitchen gadgets when a good knife and cutting board do the job better. Same with chickens, we think shavings look natural so we stick with them even though they trap moisture and smell. You found out the hard way like most of us do, trying the popular thing first before realizing there's a better way nobody talks about. It's funny how we resist change until we finally try something and wonder why we didn't do it sooner.

the_sean1mo ago

Oh man, sand is the way to go if you ask me. Doesn't it beat having to scrub caked-on shavings out of the corners every time you clean? I switched a few years back and never looked back, especially since the deep litter method just gets nasty with shavings.