Our neighbor told my married woman and me how she stopped her quaternary - grader as she was pulling a bottle chapiter out of their kitchen codswallop can , say , “ Honey , put that back . It ’s chicken feed . ” The minuscule girl , cultivate on recycling , smiled and said , “ Mama , metal ’s never trash . ” That ’s sure enough true . I double that fib every clock time my married woman enkindle an brow at my straggle lot of trash … I mean , fight metal .
I ’m not above cull up scrapfencingand other metal off the curb . And I always take a look into twist site dumpsters . One builder had tossed a grave , brokennail gunthat was easily deserving $ 15 at a scrap metal yard .
Every bit of metallic element from my scavenging slip and building projects — stripped screws , sheet metallic element , broken tools , drawn saw blades , excess pipe — gets tossed into dim , 10 - Imperial gallon nursery pots by the back logic gate . That includes household metal such as shock lids , out - of - date cay and , of course , bottle caps . Because the pot has drain fix , I do n’t have to worry about it filling with rainwater . And because it ’s pitch-dark , it ’s not very eye - catching — other than to my married woman .
But once or twice a yr , I gather enough metal in tidy sum and piles to justify a quick trip to the rubbish alloy one thousand ( that happens to be near a favorite BBQ lunch place ) . There , I sell it all for as small as about $ 3 one fourth dimension ( the price of sword was down that mean solar day ) and another time for more than $ 160 when I had a load of scrap copper and aluminium .
The niggling girl is right . Metal is n’t trash anymore . In increase to reuse it at the scrap yard , a fate of metallic element food waste can be repurposed for use in wimp coop and the garden . Here are a few example .
Rack ’em Up
One part of our vegetable garden that always gets compliments is our trellis organization for cucumbers . We employ colored metal racks that we get cheesy from what we calljunk - tique stores . These are rack from retail stock that have closed . They are a 2 - dimensional mesh with first step about 2 - by-2 inches . We have them in a smorgasbord of colors : reddened , sensationalistic , black-market and green .
In the store , the single-foot stand vertically , and items for sales event would be suspend from them . But when a store closes , everything must go , including showing wrack . And then we get them for a couple bucks to each one .
In the off season , I store them outside in the weather . In the garden , I forge a couple of4 - foot duration of rebar into the land to supportthe racks . Then I link rack and rebar together with shortsighted length of tie wire or jute . I ’ve even installed a twain of these racks for good to frame up a logic gate in our minute side yard .
Hinge Binge
A couple of hinges scavenged from a fence and logic gate remotion for a gardening client of mine found their calling when I need to set up a chicken - sized logic gate between the biddy pen and a chunnel ( myopic for “ chicken tunnel , ” of course).This new logic gate and chunnel would allow the hensaccess to a freestanding fence in area for forage bug and seeds , safe from predator . I frame up the Channel Tunnel gate with scraps of lumber andsnipped out the fence wire to make an opening .
One side of the hinge was too retentive for the space , so I placed each flexible joint on a granite block , held one side with channel locks and hammered the other terminal of the flexible joint until it bend over on itself and was the right size of it for this spot .
Perhaps I was inspired by a shirt my wife had given me that study : “ The Handyman ’s principle : Cut to Fit . Beat into Place . ”
Country Hinges
I ’ve also used scraps of copper roofing leave over from a project — but you might find them on nearby job sites — to make hinges . Some might call these “ country ” hinges for theirreuse of something that would otherwise be scrap .
Because copper is flexible , you could cut a strip about 2 - by-4 column inch , then predrill four holes near the corners and sequester the strip to run as a flexible joint . I did this on our nest corner , and it still works cracking 10 years after .
Screen Scrap
Most popular breeds of poulet in the UnitedStates were multiply in northern climate and arewell accommodate to wintertime atmospheric condition . Here in the South , where I last , the big scourge is fromheat building up in the coop . So coops need airing . Every gableand windowpane in our cage has an opening that iscovered by various scraps of metal CRT screen . Air canflow through , but vermin and predators ca n’t .
On my metal scrap yard pleasure trip I always condition out the nicer piece of metal — mountain chain , pipe , fence — that the rubbish dealer sets aside to resell . There I bought a lowly bowl of face screen — the variety used to make fireplace screens . It looks good , has a fine mesh topology , can stand up to the weather and was cheap .
That roll live on in my garage for geezerhood before I found a use for it on our cage . I reduce straight segment of the brass screen to plow the opening . I cut it with metal clip and screwed it into piazza with brass screws from the computer hardware store . I could apply unconstipated steel piece of ass , but with enough wet , two kinds of metal in contact with each other create erosion .
Because the opening in the meshing were smaller than the heads of the screws , I did n’t need to habituate washers . But if you ’re using a mesh topology with wider opening , such as hardware cloth — as in the photo — you’ll require to buy some washers to slip over the screws and immobilise the connection in place .
Bad-Guy Barrier
Over many years I have picked up miles of leftover fence telegram from the curbside . Most of it gets reprocess , sold at the scrap yard or I pass it on to a protagonist for a project . At dwelling house , I apply a variety of scavenged fencing wire to keep critters from digging under the fencing into our chicken run .
To stop critter from tunneling under your fence , some “ experts ” erroneously recommend digging a oceanic abyss 1 to 2 feet deep into which youbury the bottom of your fencing . The job with this “ solution ” is that even galvanizedfencing in the ground will corrode down to nothing in 5 to 10 years ( calculate on moisture level ) .
Galvanized fencing is blade conducting wire surface with a grey layer of the metal atomic number 30 . In the open air , this zinc level will keep steel from rusting . But when a galvanized fencing is in close contact with the ground , the constituent battery-acid in the soil oxidize the zinc . This leaves steel fencing material to corrode aside , exposing your hen to tunneling predators .
A dependable defence force is to lie an apron of fence conducting wire on the ground at the base of the fencing . You only need about a 2 - infantry tall section of fencing . Cut 4- or 5 - foot - improbable fencing material in one-half with metal snip , bolt cutter or a hand prick ( shout out a side ship’s boat ) .
With the 2 - foot section of apron fence lay flat on the background and your foot on it , bend the top 6 or 8 inches of the fencing vertical . The upright section goes up against the outside base of the fencing . practice sleeper wire to bond the apron fence to the run fencing .
The remainder of the apron fencing laying flat on the primer coat extends about 12 to 18 column inch out from the fence . It should also be pin to the ground with landscape raw material or by bending some of the fence wire to go into the ground .
get across it with mulch or let grass grow up through it . Continue this all the way around the home of your chicken running . At the gate lay argue flat on the ground or put down a flagstone to frustrate diggers .
When a predator add up up to the fencing , they ’ll adjudicate to get the picture right next to it but will be cross by your apron fence . If the predator was really impertinent , they would back up a span of feet and dig a burrow under your forestage fence to get to your hens . Instead , they ’ll go explore your neighbour ’s henhouse .
Eventually , the apron fencing will eat away . But it ’ll be easier to supervene upon than fencing buried under the ground which will also corrode to nothing . And if you ’ve clean some fencing material , it wo n’t cost you anything . Because alloy is never trash!This article originally appear in the July / August 2023 issue ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
This clause in the beginning appeared in the July / August 2023 progeny ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
