Best bedding for Chickens? 🐓

Even as today's weather is balmy and we are outside in t-shirts, the impending winter weather weighs heavily on our minds.
This of course has us discussing our options for winter bedding in the coop.

In previous years we have used straw exclusively. Over all we have been satisfied with the results, however......

.....in the picture above you can see a green tarp on the right hand side covering our last two bales of straw.
Typically we use somewhere between 15 and 20 bales throughout the course of a year.

One of the problems we face is that we can only get straw around this time of year which means we end up purchasing all that we'll need and this creates a storage problem.
We usually fill the entire lobby section of the barn with straw, then, whatever won't fit will be put under the poop boards in the sleeping area.

One of the reasons we use so much is that half of the barn has a dirt floor which, although providing many benefits for us and the birds requires frequent topping off.

So rather than purchase a years supply of straw, we have been discussing using wood shavings. They are comparable in price, we can get them locally and, they are available year round which eliminates the need for storage.

So, what are your thoughts? What do you use? Is there something else we should consider?
Thanks for your input and happy Homesteading!