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Hi, all! Sorry I haven't posted in a week and a half! Last week was harrowing, stressful, and draining. Long story short, I had a group project due last Wednesday, which no one in my group had done anything with until that week, and after I got my portion of it done and sent it to the group, they decided to restart the whole project--the night before it was due. 
So I've been taking it easy for a few days now, not feeling up to doing much. Luckily for me, it's now spring break for me, so I've been perfectly able to be lazy. 
I did get pictures of the babies yesterday, when they were officially 2 months old! I forgot entirely to post them only because the battle with mites continues on still, so I was distracted by that. The permethrin is clearly not doing the trick, so I'll be treating with Ivermectin next. Since Ivermectin is also a dewormer, and others have reported that it can kill enough worms so abruptly that it can cause an intestinal blockage, I'm deworming the flock first with Albendozole, which kills the worms more slowly and is less of a risk for causing blockages. If the Ivermectin fails to work, well, I may be pinching pennies for a while to afford Elector PSP as a last-ditch effort. The stuff is expensive, but is supposed to work well and not have any problems with immune mites yet because it's so new to the market. Here's hoping anyway. The cheapest you can get it is about $130 for just 8 ounces, though. :/
Anyway, since the mites persist, I decided to check Donna and Roscoe over for them last week. I didn't see any on them, but when I put Roscoe down, there was one crawling on me, so I knew they must have them still, too. In light of that, I've begun reintroducing them to the flock to be treated along with the rest of the adults. Roscoe, the braniac that he is, bloodied his comb pretty well by fighting other birds through the bars of his cage, so I had to put him up out of reach while reintroducing. There were a few cold nights I had to bring them in to be safe, but it's pretty warm now, so they're out. Now I can clean up my room for the chicks coming as soon as a week from tomorrow!
Just a few cell pictures, here is Roscoe, not amused by being put in a bin overnight on one of those cold nights:
I have Donna and Roscoe in pens on the hutches while they're reintroducing. Apparently, this is now where Callette wants to lay her eggs. Here is how I found one of her eggs yesterday. That ledge is 5, maybe 6 inches wide.
And here is Lydda, all the way up on top of Roscoe's cage on the hutch, doing her best to look innocent.
Now, onto the pictures of the feather duster squad yesterday! They were outside while I was taking their pictures, and they absolutely NEVER cooperate for pictures when they're outside!
Here's sweet Abra. Look how orange she's gotten!
Rowena, who could barely be bothered to look up from the grass.
Lucky, the spunky one!
Ramsay, the absolute hardest to get pictures of sometimes!!
And Rigby, who's starting to gain some spunk of his own!
You may notice that Lucky and Ramsay are pretty tough to tell apart. It's kind of funny, Lucky and Rigby started out as 'twins', and now it's Lucky and Ramsay that are so similar in appearance! Luckily enough (haha, aren't I funny?), Lucky has dark gray down while Ramsay has reddish down, so I can still tell them apart fairly easily.
Anyway, while I was out with them, the babies didn't want to be in their little corral. I didn't think I could keep track of them running loose, so I blocked off a little area around myself so that one or two of them could poke around out there at a time. Before I knew it, all five were out! This space was hardly big enough for the five of them to spread out in, while the corral gave them much more room, but what do I know. 
Once I convinced them to go back in their little corral, they were soon traumatized by a very scary airplane that flew over:
And some absolutely terrifying Sandhill Cranes. Here is Abra looking up toward the cranes:
I don't even know what happened this time, but I looked away for just a second, and the next thing I knew, Rowena was trying to hide away in my legs! Something must have scared her good!
Whatever it was must have also frightened Abra, but she decided to hide under my 'wing':
It was a good day for bird watching, anyway. While I was sitting there with the chicks, a little tiny Brown Creeper joined us on a tree only 6 feet away. It was terribly adorable! None of the pictures I took of it turned out, though. :/
Anyway, some miscellaneous pictures from their time outside. Here is Abra, looking up from a preen while perched on my knee:
Rowena was really enjoying the grass, and she found a few bugs while she was at it, too!
This was one of the pictures I got while STRUGGLING to get Ramsay's picture! I snapped the shot, and apparently he very quickly bent over and started eating just then.
Rigby, meanwhile, posed quite handsomely for me.
Last but not least, here is an Abra cuddle.
So I've been taking it easy for a few days now, not feeling up to doing much. Luckily for me, it's now spring break for me, so I've been perfectly able to be lazy. I did get pictures of the babies yesterday, when they were officially 2 months old! I forgot entirely to post them only because the battle with mites continues on still, so I was distracted by that. The permethrin is clearly not doing the trick, so I'll be treating with Ivermectin next. Since Ivermectin is also a dewormer, and others have reported that it can kill enough worms so abruptly that it can cause an intestinal blockage, I'm deworming the flock first with Albendozole, which kills the worms more slowly and is less of a risk for causing blockages. If the Ivermectin fails to work, well, I may be pinching pennies for a while to afford Elector PSP as a last-ditch effort. The stuff is expensive, but is supposed to work well and not have any problems with immune mites yet because it's so new to the market. Here's hoping anyway. The cheapest you can get it is about $130 for just 8 ounces, though. :/
Anyway, since the mites persist, I decided to check Donna and Roscoe over for them last week. I didn't see any on them, but when I put Roscoe down, there was one crawling on me, so I knew they must have them still, too. In light of that, I've begun reintroducing them to the flock to be treated along with the rest of the adults. Roscoe, the braniac that he is, bloodied his comb pretty well by fighting other birds through the bars of his cage, so I had to put him up out of reach while reintroducing. There were a few cold nights I had to bring them in to be safe, but it's pretty warm now, so they're out. Now I can clean up my room for the chicks coming as soon as a week from tomorrow!
Just a few cell pictures, here is Roscoe, not amused by being put in a bin overnight on one of those cold nights:
I have Donna and Roscoe in pens on the hutches while they're reintroducing. Apparently, this is now where Callette wants to lay her eggs. Here is how I found one of her eggs yesterday. That ledge is 5, maybe 6 inches wide.
And here is Lydda, all the way up on top of Roscoe's cage on the hutch, doing her best to look innocent.
Now, onto the pictures of the feather duster squad yesterday! They were outside while I was taking their pictures, and they absolutely NEVER cooperate for pictures when they're outside!
Here's sweet Abra. Look how orange she's gotten!
Rowena, who could barely be bothered to look up from the grass.
Lucky, the spunky one!
Ramsay, the absolute hardest to get pictures of sometimes!!
And Rigby, who's starting to gain some spunk of his own!
You may notice that Lucky and Ramsay are pretty tough to tell apart. It's kind of funny, Lucky and Rigby started out as 'twins', and now it's Lucky and Ramsay that are so similar in appearance! Luckily enough (haha, aren't I funny?), Lucky has dark gray down while Ramsay has reddish down, so I can still tell them apart fairly easily.
Anyway, while I was out with them, the babies didn't want to be in their little corral. I didn't think I could keep track of them running loose, so I blocked off a little area around myself so that one or two of them could poke around out there at a time. Before I knew it, all five were out!
This space was hardly big enough for the five of them to spread out in, while the corral gave them much more room, but what do I know. Once I convinced them to go back in their little corral, they were soon traumatized by a very scary airplane that flew over:
And some absolutely terrifying Sandhill Cranes. Here is Abra looking up toward the cranes:
I don't even know what happened this time, but I looked away for just a second, and the next thing I knew, Rowena was trying to hide away in my legs! Something must have scared her good!
Whatever it was must have also frightened Abra, but she decided to hide under my 'wing':
It was a good day for bird watching, anyway. While I was sitting there with the chicks, a little tiny Brown Creeper joined us on a tree only 6 feet away. It was terribly adorable! None of the pictures I took of it turned out, though. :/
Anyway, some miscellaneous pictures from their time outside. Here is Abra, looking up from a preen while perched on my knee:
Rowena was really enjoying the grass, and she found a few bugs while she was at it, too!
This was one of the pictures I got while STRUGGLING to get Ramsay's picture! I snapped the shot, and apparently he very quickly bent over and started eating just then.
Rigby, meanwhile, posed quite handsomely for me.
Last but not least, here is an Abra cuddle.
e 
:cd :yiipchick I can only have four chicks, so if she allows me, 
