Joshua Tree is indeed close by! We have coyotes, but they seem to leave us alone because (or in spite of) our dogs...we have 4 at present, all rescues, but 2 of them are almost 14 yrs old so they don't really care about much other than eating and sleeping anymore, lol! We have a huge laurel tree in our backyard so I was going to have my son put the coop there and then I plan to order a chicken run so they aren't getting out of the fence all the time (it's a cyclone fence so it will be breechable, I'm afraid). I will definitely give the watering down the sand a few times a day a try - we already have a kiddie pool for the dogs, so we can just keep that filled with a bit of clean water for them as well. We have a small pond but there is a turtle and a bunch of koi in it and I don't know if it would be a good idea to let them intermingle as the fish are a dirty bunch and the turtle doesn't help anything. We are already attached and the girls (I'm hoping they're all girls!!) are all named already, so I am certain it won't be long before the chickens are running the house like everything else we have does! Thank you for the suggestions - we are very green at all of this so any advice is a plus!!