Howdy All from the Arizona Desert

I am not new to poultry raising, just new to this forum. My wife and I homestead about 50 miles out into the desert west of Phoenix, AZ. We currently have 13 laying hens and a rooster and 7 guinea fowl (mix of M&F) - all free-range during the day, penned up at night. We have 24 new Red Ranger broiler chicks still in the brooder but will have their own shelter and night pen after they feather out. We also have a Heritage Red Bourbon Turkey trio who have their own 12' x 30' pen & coop. We also have meat and dairy goats, meat rabbits, honey bees, a horse, a rescued Sonoran Desert Tortoise, and three large dogs. My wife cares for the poultry and bunny parts of our operation.

Our experiences are no doubt much different than most here. Both chicken coops and the turkey shelter are open on one side into their respective pens. The turkeys' pen is on the opposite side of our property from the chickens. The chicken coop and run shares an area adjoining the goat barn, where the chick brooder is set up. We incubate and hatch some of our own chicks in the spring. We just completed the new turkey run and can post pics if any wish to see. Instead of netting the top of the run, we used mesh shade cloth. Providing shade and water out here are our first priorities for all the livestock and poultry. Our temps are finally out of the 100's so this is a busy time of year for us.

I look forward to reading and maybe contributing to the various threads here.

-Dutch