I'd just like to say that I have new respect for chicken wire and chain-link hurricane fences.
When Susie and I bought our farm last January, there were 3 projects of old abandoned structures that seemed to be glued together with chicken wire. There was 1 other project that was 'welded' together with hurricane fence. All 4 coups and kennels needed to go. 20 years is past the life expectancy of coups and kennels - at least ones depending on wires for structural integrity.
The chicken wire on these 'buildings' was crossed, intertwined, tangled, twisted, nailed, tied, wired-together, and planted into the ground.
We tried to get the structures down fast by pushing down wood frames and wrapping the result into big globs of wire and wood. It wasn't lent to a fast process. The wire doesn't want to come off easily. It can't be pulled off by simply yanking here and there. And it cuts the living bejeebers out of arms or whatever other fleshy parts get in the way.
The ending mess does not compact well. We didn't need to recycle any of the material because it was very old, rusted, and the wood was rotting. But getting it into the trash bin was difficult and the wood/wire blob used a lot of wasted space due to the overall strength of the wire. Chicken wire also makes it so that wood sections don't fold over into neat units which are easy to toss into a bin.
For the last structure we hired a helper to do the removal. He simply cut to the chase and snipped off wire from wood. Great idea! The wood stacks neatly and the wire is a little more able to be compacted. Lesson learned: either a) hire someone who knows what s/he is doing, or b) cut the wire off first and deal with the resulting wood.
Hurricane fence is another story. The previous owner buried the chain links about 12" into the ground - hoping to save bunnies from Foxes. Over time the yard trees grew roots through those chain links.
NOTHING but NOTHING is able to pull out chain link fencing that is rooted into the ground.
Susan and I ended up cutting a few roots (the less-difficult method) and cutting many links, link by link, to get that fence out of the ground. Several feet of hurrican fence is still planted in that sacred ground waiting for a rototiller to have its tiller mangled some time in the future.
After we got the chain link fence out of the ground, now that we were totally exhausted and wanted to sell every square inch of our new farm, we were faced with what to do with a 700 pound roll of old rusted wire fencing.
A tractor! ... if we had one! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Since we didn't have one, it came down to leverage or hiring someone 30 years younger and 30 years wiser. We went with the leverage idea because no 20-year-old-buff-farmhand was walking on our lonely country road at the moment, looking for fence demolition work. And if they would have been there at that precise moment, the part about 'wiser' would kick in pretty quick.
At the end of the day my advice is that Neosporin is good treatment for cut arms. Aspirin helps with backaches. Liberal application of alcohol is useful to rid those sore memories.
Good luck with your project.
Martin