The first step is to raise the surrounding barrier another 90 cm using some treated fence railing, and then attach a panel of chicken wire above the colourbond sheets. The outside edge of the garden will be the walk around path, and all the raised beds will align east west. The garden area will be divided in half with separate gates to access each half, and in the middle I’m building a small chicken coop with access to either side of the garden. I can shut off one half of the garden at a time and let chickens into the other half to eat all the weeds, etc.
Patrick next door has promised me 2 hens when I am ready, and I already have the feed and water dispensers plus a bag of seed for them. I picked up some free pallets to use as building materials, I have a few other bits and pieces hanging around, and may need to buy a couple of things, but still need an actual plan.
There is a bit of technique to breaking up pallets without actually breaking them up, splitting the wood, etc. I use a crowbar, claw hammer, small sledge hammer, some offcuts of timber, a magnet to pick up nails, and of course some gloves. Most pallets are made of green pine with a nail gun, 3 or 4 cross members, 3 or 4 planks on one side, and a more substantial layer of planks on the other side that actually takes the load. Because of the the material and construction method it is difficult to deconstruct them without splitting the planks. Here’s how I do it:
1: With the 3 or 4 planks side facing up, stack 2 timber offcuts under the end of one of the planks. Put the crowbar between the offcut pieces and prise up the end of the plank. This stops the crowbar digging into the soft plank and splitting it. You can then prise up a bit higher to loosen the plank from the middle cross member and even from the other end, but do this carefully. You may need to move your offcuts to do the middle cross member and other end. Repeat till all the planks on that side are removed.
2: Put some offcuts under the cross members, between the remaining planks. Then using an offcut and the small sledge hammer, bash each plank down hard to remove it from the cross member. Once all the planks are detached, use the crowbar to remove any remaining nails from the cross members.
3: Line up the planks nail side up on the cross members and pound the nails down with the claw hammer. Turn the planks over and remove nails with the crowbar, clean up nails with the magnet, and you are done.
3 large pallets done in about an hour and a half, plenty of material for the chicken house.
