Oh how frustrating! I'm sorry you're dealing with all that. On advice I got from a member here, I put clumps of dirt from the run and yard (and some chick grit) in a dish with my new chicks when they were just a few days old, to start exposing them to whatever is in the soil. The oldest are about 10 weeks and all seem healthy as can be. I know some people like sand in their coop but it seems problematic to me. I would use all hemp if I could afford it, but the coop is 64 SF and I'm doing deep bedding, building up to 10 inches or so. So I have a mix of hemp, pine shavings and pelletized horse bedding. My plan is to clean it out about twice a year. In the dirt run I have pine bark nugget mulch and leaves I collected up from the creek bed. Lots for them to root through. I think you really want chickens to have as close to a natural environment as possible if you want them to be hardy.
