Your welcome! Most people don't consider chicken wire or poultry wire to be strong enough to deter predators either. You will see it used on lots of coops but there are also lots of stories of dogs and raccoons or coyotes chewing through the chicken wire. I think to consider your coop to be adequately predator proofed you have to be able to stop a raccoon or a neighborhood dog (like a Lab not a chihuahua). Then you have to worry about the hawks overhead. They say raccoons can open simple latches. Some folks have to use an electric fence if they have big predators issues. If you want to deter rats/mice you either have to secure your feed at night (every night) or you can not have a gap larger than 1/2 inch for them to gain access to your coop. That means you have to use hardware cloth and have "tight" doors and windows. Hardware cloth is expensive and a pain in the butt to work with. I don't think it looks as good as chicken wire. But, I used it because I don't want to go out there and find mutilated chickens, nor do I want a mice/rat problem. I put carabiners on my latches for smart predators. I have a 6 foot stockade fence but fence gates can accidentally be left open a neighborhood dog can smell chickens. I hope it all works out for you.
