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It's hard to find a mellow German Shepard! Bred to be guard/ working dogs, and MUST be trained! Many are neurotic, poorly bred, and difficult. The right Doberman might work. Again, trained, socialized, and a guard breed. Retrievers vary: Goldens, lotsa hair, mostly mellow. I have met a very...

Very short faces are bad for dogs, and people think they are cute. Very sad. And dogs are individuals, so breed preferences are guidelines, not carved in stone. Mary

Min pins are tough little guys, not a good choice, mini guard dogs. Treated like cute toys, they bite. Frenchies are insanely popular right now! Cute, health issues, and exercise intolerant (can't breathe well). Mary

Labs are easy to find, and come in two types: quiet labs, more likely English types, and busy labs, who do take more time/ daily exercise. Whippets have some terrier in their background, and are more social and more 'obedience motivated' than any of the other sighthounds. Love them...

So avoid mastiff types, who all drool. We've had two, and drooling happens. Do you want a guard dog? Or one who 'loves everyone? Shedding lots, or not? Short hair with undercoat will shed, no undercoat leads to not much hair anywhere. Think whippets, maybe dalmations, or pit bull terriers...

Dogs I've raised from puppyhood weren't hard to train to be safe with our chickens. Rescues with difficult backstories have been HARD. How big? How active? Do you plan to run with this dog? Raise as a puppy or get an adult? ANY dog will need training to leave chickens alone! Puppies tend to...

:drool Want some! I have an EE bantam hen on seven eggs right now, should be hatching this week. I do love the banties. Mary

Your coop is very handsome! However, unless the walls we can't see have big hardware cloth covered openings, it's not well ventilated. And hardware cloth needs to be very well attached! Ours is stapled to wood framing with fencing staples, and then 1x4" boards are screwed in over the staples...

Mice are a constant struggle, but rats are a much greater risk to your birds (and yourself). Openings large enough for rats to enter are also large enough for members of the weasel family! Rats will eat eggs and kill chickens, and weasels can kill an entire flock in one night. Mary

Welcome! If you have an actual predator proof run and coop, it's all fine (as long as there are no bears!). Pictures of your run and coop will help us here, and your approximate location. Many of us have learned the hard way that our chickens weren't as safe as we thought they were... Mary

It's not 'nutty' to try and be safer out there! But it's also true that everything can't be avoided, it's not a perfect world. Mary

And in those 'good old days', neither lead not asbestos were considered all that dangerous in and around homes. Our veggie garden was right next to our house, painted with decades of paint containing lead. And so many ceramic dishes, until not so long ago, have lead in the glaze and paint...

IMO a more important issue for our backyard flocks concerns lead. Older buildings will often have lead paint, which flakes off into the soil nearby. Chickens root around in that soil and eat the paint chips, soil, and plant growing in it. We are blessed with buildings that weren't painted, and...

Birds eat the berries, spreading it everywhere! We have it here too, and when I work at removing it, I'm wearing rubber gloves and a hazmat suit. We also have poison hemlock, so the same precautions apply. You all may also now have poison hemlock, a way worse plant, look it up. Don't burn...

x5, cockerel. And very handsome! Mary

Agree x100%!!! I've got other things to worry about, and actually our food supply is pretty safe, including the feed we buy for our birds. Safer than in many places, and much safer than, say, a century ago or further back than that. Looking for perfection isn't all that useful. Mary

Necropsies...

Welcome! Both are cockerels. How about pictures of your other chicks? Two out of twelve isn't bad, hope there aren't any more. Mary

Were they overheating? Cold? Or just that you have reached the end of a disaster? Have you used this heat lamp before? Mary

The cattle aren't dying, as chickens and turkeys do, when infected. And we've had mass killing of dairy cattle, in the late 70's or early 80', look up the film 'Bitter harvest'. Here in Michigan! Mary