We have a coop and enclosed run in our backyard and have also built a tractor to let our birds explore the yard. For us, the tractor was the way to go because we have a dog who would show no mercy if given the opportunity to catch a chicken, not to mention, neighborhood cats/dogs, very...
DE is Diatomaceous earth. It helps to kill the bugs. You can google it. They sell it at our local Agway store so it shouldn't be hard to find.
We use pine shavings (over linoleum) in our coop and only fluff it up. It hardly gets dirty because we have poop boards with sweet pdz on them which...