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
Hello there and welcome to BYC! Sounds like you have a wonderful set up! If you can get away with an "open air" coop, go for it. Birds are way healthier if the air can move! Yes, desert dwellers do have quite the time keeping poultry cool. Stop by your state thread and chat with your chicken neighbors as well to see what they are up to these days...https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/31227/arizona-chickens Make yourself at home here and if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask around the forums. Welcome to our flock!
Hello Dutch, so glad you decided to join us. My grandfather had a similar coop in South Georgia - 3 walls and totally open on the run side. Enjoy the forums, hope you share your experience.
Hi Dutch, nice to meet you. Sounds like you have a very well thought out and running establishment going on.
Welcome to BYC, Dutch. Glad you decided to join our flock. I'd love to see some pics of your place. ) If you haven't done so already, definitely check out our Learning Center at https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center. There is loads of useful information there. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Cheers.
