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A woven wire product (which is what chicken wire is) can't ever be as strong as a welded wire product (which is what hardware cloth is), even if you're comparing the same gauge wire in each. That's because there's no solid connection of the two pieces of wire with woven wire, the wire is just twisted around each other, which means when force is applied, that connection can move. With welded wire, the only way the connection between the two pieces of wire can move is if the weld is broken which requires a considerable amount of force.
A low gauge chicken wire fence could be strong enough to keep out what you're trying to keep out, but I doubt if it could be as strong as a welded wire fence of the same gauge wire.
The thing is, most chicken wire fences I've seen are pretty high gauge, 20 or above. That's very thin wire. Add to that the woven structure, plus the large openings between the wire, and the resulting fence is pretty weak.
A woven wire product (which is what chicken wire is) can't ever be as strong as a welded wire product (which is what hardware cloth is), even if you're comparing the same gauge wire in each. That's because there's no solid connection of the two pieces of wire with woven wire, the wire is just twisted around each other, which means when force is applied, that connection can move. With welded wire, the only way the connection between the two pieces of wire can move is if the weld is broken which requires a considerable amount of force.
A low gauge chicken wire fence could be strong enough to keep out what you're trying to keep out, but I doubt if it could be as strong as a welded wire fence of the same gauge wire.
The thing is, most chicken wire fences I've seen are pretty high gauge, 20 or above. That's very thin wire. Add to that the woven structure, plus the large openings between the wire, and the resulting fence is pretty weak.
