Part of my plan with the 'big' vegie garden at the back (next to the orchard) was to run it in a permaculture system. This would mean rotating each garden bed and using the chooks to clean up the old vegies and fertilise the area at the same time, ready for replanting. According to the book this required me to use a chook dome which James obligingly agreed to build for us. The idea is that the dome goes over the bed, and the chickens live safely in there protected from foxes and the like, while the other garden beds are in turn protected from them until we are ready to move them on. All the theory seemed sound. It even had instructions on how to build a chook dome using only piping and bailing twine with some wire over the top. A morning's work in fact. On the right is what it was meant to look like - on the left is what it looked like before the bailing twine 'cross braces' were put on. There was a lot of swearing from James about 'bloody hippies' not knowing how to build anything...let alone write instructions. Once done we all stood back to survey the structure and unanimously agreed that it looked awful. It is still sitting sadly in the front garden to be disassembled. A sturdy wooden one with shiny handles and wheels on the bottom will probably follow.