Here's my update on my five pullets: So I put sand in the in-house extra large box coop we had and it worked well with scooping the poop up everyday. It did smell, because they were still inside our house, but they were still too small to go outside because of the weather, even though we are in CA. It rained more than normal and was colder than normal here so we decided to switch over to the sand because of this thread. Scooping the poop and cleaning the coop got easier with the sand. However, our pullets like to sand bathe in the coop so it got dusty very quick and often. Now with the weather being better, our pullets are outside in the nicely built coop and the seems to enjoy it. The run has just dirt and the inside the coop, there is only shaving in the nesting box (they are not laying yet) just in case they want it to keep warm. There is nothing on the floor except the feed bin and water for them. They sleep on top of the nesting boxes and and it easy to clean. They still sand bathe, actually it's dry dirt, in the run but works the same. So thank you for the suggestion and we will use sand in the coop if we have to but for now, it works with nothing on the floor and we clean the coop at least once everyday. Thank you to everyone who writes on this site. I often read just to get ideas and see if I'm raising our pullets correctly. They seem to be healthy and we're just waiting for them to be old enough to lay eggs for us...in another month or so.
