I spent $6.43 on two prescriptions today leaving me with $20 in the checking account until Friday. I also bought two burgers at DQ today out of what's left of my December allowance, leaving me with $6 in cash. No biggie. Plenty in savings still.

Now onto the chickens. I swear the majority of the chicken pictures I take are of chicken butts. I swear they are facing the camera when I push the shutter down, but by the time it goes off they have turned around. It's the one thing I really miss about film cameras, there is no delay between when you snap the photo and when it is taken. Still, film was expensive to develop and I do love the ease of digital. I managed to get a few non-butt chicken shots today though.

First up are Queen (Rhode Island Red), Curious (gold sex-linked orpington), Goldilocks (Auracna, gold cheek puffs), Henrietta (Auracana, red cheek puffs), and Kyri (Bantam Auracana cross, gold cheek puffs).



Henrietta has the most beautiful markings.



Georgie (gold sex-linked oprington) on top of Fort Knox. Of course. If there is a roof, she will be on it.



Georgie and Kyri



Silver (silver lace-winged wyandotte, I know, creative naming). I swear she was facing me. At least it's not a full on chicken butt shot. This view shows off her gorgeous wings more fully, though.



Patricia (Barred rock). She is stubburn bird. That is why she is named after my mother, who is also a stubborn bird.



Curious, Silver, Pipsqueak (black australorp), and Ecru (white leghorn). Pipsqueak stayed small for a long, long time. Now the only chickens bigger than her are Silver and Half-pint who also stayed small for a long, long time.



Half-pint (black australorp) and Eggshell (white leghorn, I think she's been rolling in the mud)



Queen



It has been such a wet January so far, the area around the coop, shed and Fort Know is just mud. It doesn't matter if you scrub out the buckets every day (which we do) and fill them with clean water, they are filthy within a couple of hours.

We are hoping to reseed some of the area in spring, although I don't know how successful that will be. The chickens have pretty much ravaged that area. We'd have to pen it off for weeks. Fortunately there is plenty of nice grass outside the main pen and they don't spend the whole day in the mud, just the main feeding and scratching session. The rest of the time they are chasing bugs and worms and eating plants around the property.

Laying is going well. With 9 pullets, a 20 month old hen (who finally stopped molting), and two that are nearly 3 we have a very good supply. I'm not looking forward to next year at this time. We'll have 9 hens molting for the first time and two hens molting for the second time. The yard will look like a slumber party after a pillow fight. And one hen laying consistently. I hope they don't all go into molt at the same time! There is a bit of variance between the breeds, but still most of them molt at approximately 18 months and it can take several weeks.

Now Mom is saying she doesn't want to raise anymore ducklings after all. I think that is probably wise. We all love them, but they are seriously filthy animals and not as biddable as chickens. I wasn't really up for it this year anyway with homeschooling. That takes up too much of my time and you seriously have to worry about baby birds a lot. I'd really prefer a more carefree spring, but we'll see what happens when they appear in the feed store and start making their cute little duckling noises.