Chicken Shortage

We only have 4 chickens left.  Mike has deemed that unacceptable.  He wants to get baby chicks.  I want more chickens that lay the blue-green eggs, so it appears we want the same thing.  It is time to get some baby chicks. 

However, in past years, we have kept the baby chicks in our basement for their first few weeks here at the pond but it got smelly in the house eventually.  They we would move them outside where we would have to improvise housing for them.  We just did not want to do that anymore so Mike decided to build them their own mini-chicken coop.  We would keep it behind the big chicken coop which is already enclosed on two sides.  Once Mike enclosed the other two sides they would have enclosed area of their own.  This run would enable them to be protected from their big sisters but still be visible to each other.  A big advantage here is that we would not have to capture them to put them to bed at night.  They would do it themselves. 

So Mike designed a miniature version of our big red chicken coop.  He had left over tin from the outside of Morton Building #2 to put on the sides and roof.  He reused the wood that was the box packaging for the pontoon boat and bought a few more pieces. 

Finally it was finished.  It has two side window vents with window covers.  It has a front door for the chickens to be able to get outside when they are old enough.  And the roof opens so chicken keepers can get inside.  And many latches were added for safety from predators. 

In the meantime, we had started to look online and in the local stores for chickens that laid blue or green eggs.  They were hard to find.  We had missed the early spring chick season.  So the pressure was on.  Mike had to finish that coop sooner rather than later or we would have to wait until next spring to put any chicks in it. 

A few Americuana chicks at Rural King.
But would there be any left when the coop was done?