Are you ABSOLUTELY positive

[silkiechick05]

A raccoon, possum, and/or other beast can't reach through 1/2" by 1/2" wire??

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

I wouldn't put anything past all those little varmits. They are all so sly and tenacious. We have had squirrels steal eggs. Luckily the dogs usually kill or chase of the bigger ones like the coons or possums and the 22 takes care of the squirrels.

 

[Maidservant]

I don't know about chickens, but with rabbits, a racoon will stick their fingers into the cage (1/2 by 1/2) and wiggle their fingers. Bunny comes over to investigate, coon grabs hold and eats everything it can pull through the cage. Not a pretty sight. Luckily around here there are enough illegal deer kills and road kill to keep the coons and possums happy.

 

[chixie]

I know a dog can chew thru that... my dogs did and gutted one of my rabbits

 

[CoopCrazy]

Yes they can .. I lost a third of my Jumbo Coturnis to a coon reaching in and hgetting there toes.. It ate toes,. legs, and ripped all the skin off there bellies..

 

[LynneP]

Well, we have a raccoon named 'Mary' living in our barn, and she waltzes by the run and coop several times a day. She was (we think) brought to the barn by one of the feral cats as an infant, and still lives among them. Now, our framework is very strong, too and we have buried 2' underground around the edge of the run. So far so good- we used Mary as our predator model as we built the coop...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-LynnePs_Run

 

[elmo]

You do have to be careful that your birds are not roosting right on the wire, because their toes can then stick out and be bitten off. But a racoon's paw would have to be less than 1/2" in width to fit through wire with openings that small. I have heard of racoons reaching through 1/2 by 1 inch wire, because the extra 1/2 inch lets them fit their whole paw in there.

Pay attention to the gauge of the wire, too. Sometimes it's 22 gauge which is pretty thin and easier to break.

 

[silkiechick05]

Yeah,
I have only 19 gauge wire...

Is that good enough?