I'm done treating pine shavings as the cheap option in the coop

I switched my 8 hens from straw to pine shavings back in March and the ammonia smell in the coop went from knocking me over at the door to barely there, even on a warm day in July. People keep saying shavings cost too much, but a $12 bale at the feed store in Elgin lasts me about 6 weeks, which is cheaper than the vet bill I got from the last respiratory flare up. Straw just sits there and mats down, and once it's wet it's nasty. Anyone else made the swap, or am I the only one who thinks straw is a trap?

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tyler_martinez15h ago

I bought two bales of straw at the Tractor Supply in Seguin three years back and figured I was set for life on cheap bedding. By the second month the coop smelled like a barn fire and the straw was matting into these wet slabs I had to pry off the floor with a pitchfork. I finally tried shavings last fall and I was wrong about them being the pricey choice, because I was buying straw twice as often and still fighting the smell. A bale of shavings fluffs up so much more than it looks like it will, and the wet spots scoop out easy instead of turning into a soggy mess. Straw is a trap, you called it right.

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