6 months of pine shavings in the coop vs sand, and the smell is the difference I can't get over

Patricia Bennett · 2026-10-18T02:00:04.530976+00:00

I made the switch from pine shavings to sand in my 8x10 coop back in April, mostly because I was tired of buying bags every couple of weeks. About 5 months in, I finally did a real deep clean and the difference just hit me. With the shavings, the floor under the roost always turned into this dark caked mess that I had to chip off with a putty knife. Now the sand dries out fast, and a $12 bag of play sand from the hardware place lasts me way longer than a bale. My five girls seem to scratch around in it more too, and I swear the coop smells like nothing compared to before, even in the August heat here in Ohio. The one catch is it's heavy, so scooping the poop out is a daily chore instead of a weekly one. Curious if anyone else runs sand in a humid climate and how you handle it when the rainy season hits.

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6 months of pine shavings in the coop vs sand, and the smell is the difference I can't get over | Backyard Chicken Keepers - HW Forums