Free Children

We just picked up a huge, two storey outdoor rabbit hutch, and a large, commercially made chicken run! I originally responded to a posting about the rabbit hutch, and when E went around to look at it, he discovered that the owners also wanted to get rid of the chook house before they moved. Since we've been procrastinating about building a chook run for at least a year, E didn't have to think too hard about offering to take it off their hands too... We need to fix one of the side wire panels and attach chicken wire to the bottom to discourage predators, but other than that it's got the lot - a raised sleeping house with three nest boxes which are accessible from the outside through a hinged side panel, and an enclosed yard with a full-length door for human access to clean, feed, cuddle, etc. It's wonderful! Ms Nine is excited about getting her pet chicken Nimmitabel back from Nannie's farm, as well as some of Nimmitabel's flock mates. Nannie decided to get herself some new pullets and give us the ones who are used to Nimmitabel, so there will be less risk of bullying. We originally got Nimmitabel almost four years ago, and she was fully mature then, so she's a fairly elderly creature and well past her laying days, but she is very placid and kid-friendly.

Since we gave away our old rabbit to someone with a large outdoor run and a suddenly bereaved single bunny a few months ago, we will of course need to adopt new rabbits, too. There are two young females, presumably sisters, available through the local RSPCA shelter and hopefully we can go and adopt them tomorrow, so we will need to intensively clean the cage tomorrow morning, but we will have to wait a few days for the chickens. Probably long enough that I will manage to use up the three dozen free-range eggs which my parents have given us recently, before we can start collecting our own!