So You Bought a Lot of Chicken Wire...

OldGuy43

Songster
8 Years
And than discovered it doesn't work well for predators? What to do with it? I have found the very thing for you. Sculpt a moose head out of it:

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_7855867_use-wire-sculpt-moose-head.html

Don't want a moose head? How about a tree?

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_5723995_make-trees-using-chicken-wire.html

or planting pots?

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_7895971_make-chickenwire-planting-pots.html

The list is endless.
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Not anywhere near as attractive as moose heads and all, but far more functional (for folks who have chickens):

Make grow frames. Use 2 X 4 lumber and screw them into rectangular boxes of any size you want, with the 2" sides down, so the frames are 4" tall. Stretch chicken wire across them and staple it down. Move the frames to a bare area of your yard (if you have chickens, you have bare spots or even large bare expanses of dirt in your yard). Have the wire side as the UP side.

Scatter grass seed or just let the natural soil start to grow grass or weeds, or any kind of grassy things. The chickens can't get to the "seedlings" but when the green stuff grows up through the chicken wire, the flock can peck off some of the greens without decimating all the growing stuff. They may pull out some of the plants, but enough will stay there to grow.

This will give the flock something to enjoy, yet help keep bare yard from becoming (or returning to) an erosion problem.

This is what I am gonna do with MY chicken wire.... just gotta get some more 2 X 4s!
 
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If paper mache isn't your thing, here's a couple of other uses. A local sign company used to build signs around here that involved what looked like weathered tree trunks or rocks, These were made of Fiberglas, and the frame was made with chicken wire. Same idea, just a more durable end product.

Something I've been thinking about, and may actually do later this season, is topiary. Make a shape out of wood and chicken wire, and train ivy or some other vine on the wire. Sorta like this :
 
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If you have a vegetable garden, it makes a great trellis for peas, cucumbers, pole beans and other climbers. Make a simple support frame out of 2x4s or old fence posts and stick them in the ground, then stretch the wire as tight as possible -- no slack -- across and tack them securely to each post. Then train the plants up them.

Make a "teepee" by tying/wiring together 4 bamboo poles or wood stakes, and stretch pieces of chickenwire over the frame, then train pole beans or gourd vines or other viners over it. Leave a "door" so your kids can use it as a clubhouse!
 
Not as artsy, but remember just cause it won't keep predators out doesn't mean you can't use it to cross fence your run or coop, to make a seperate area if needed for a recovering bird or babies that aren't ready to go in with the big girls, or breeds you want to seperate for hatching eggs, or a broody, etc.
 

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