Chicken wire mesh or welded wire fencing ?

[momof12]

Due to covid, everyone is putting up animals, there is a shortage here for hardware cloth 1/2 x 1/2 squares. we are building a chicken tractor and I am trying to decide if I use chicken wire (not my first choice). PVC covered chicken wire or 2 by 4 in welded wire. we have no racooons or snake predators to worry about but we do have a fisher cat that routinely prowls through our area. Which do you all recommend and why ? My husband thought we could simply double wrap with chicken wire

 

[M Brennen]

Due to covid, everyone is putting up animals, there is a shortage here for hardware cloth 1/2 x 1/2 squares. we are building a chicken tractor and I am trying to decide if I use chicken wire (not my first choice). PVC covered chicken wire or 2 by 4 in welded wire. we have no racooons or snake predators to worry about but we do have a fisher cat that routinely prowls through our area. Which do you all recommend and why ? My husband thought we could simply double wrap with chicken wire

We were able to order 1/2 inch through Home Depot. It came To the house within a week and we weren’t charged shipping.

 

[swamphiker]

Hardware cloth is truly the way to go, so it's unfortunate that it is out of stock! You may have already tried this, but have you checked to see if hardware cloth is available at online retailers?

 

[David61]

If you can't get or want HC use both animal wire and chicken wire down low for the first two feet. Reaching in to grab a chicken is one thing but chickens are stupid and will stick their heads out of the 2x4 wire.
Defend all with 2x4 or better wire and run a two foot chicken mesh low to keep their heads in. My cousin finally did after she saw the hawk on the ground with the chickens head in its claws and the chicken behind the runs wire. She got lucky with just a hole in the chickens beck. She is not sure if it reached in or the chicken poked its head out but she has mesh down low on her run now.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Please, please, please do NOT use chicken wire! Too many people have lost chickens using it!

 

[momof12]

Hardware cloth is truly the way to go, so it's unfortunate that it is out of stock! You may have already tried this, but have you checked to see if hardware cloth is available at online retailers?

yes I did and most are out of stock or so very inflated

 

[M Brennen]

If you can't get or want HC use both animal wire and chicken wire down low for the first two feet. Reaching in to grab a chicken is one thing but chickens are stupid and will stick their heads out of the 2x4 wire.
Defend all with 2x4 or better wire and run a two foot chicken mesh low to keep their heads in. My cousin finally did after she saw the hawk on the ground with the chickens head in its claws and the chicken behind the runs wire. She got lucky with just a hole in the chickens beck. She is not sure if it reached in or the chicken poked its head out but she has mesh down low on her run now.

We have also come home and found our bantam rooster pulled through the chicken wire with his head missing.

 

[momof12]

We were able to order 1/2 inch through Home Depot. It came To the house within a week and we weren’t charged shipping.

May I ask where are you located? we are in a small town in Alberta Canada i called our homedepot and they told me sometime end of august

 

[coach723]

If you use anything else, you are probably going to end up re-doing it, so if at all possible I would try to find some hardware cloth. I don't know what differences there are in shipping to Canada, but Amazon has some in 24" width:
https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Zone-19-Gauge-Galvanized-Hardware/dp/B001VJBSZK

 

[SueT]

I can order welded wire online from Home Depot. But they also had it in the store. I bought a 50' roll yesterday of the 2" X 4" kind, 5' high for a new run area. They had 4 or 5 rolls. TSC had it in 100' rolls as did 2 other farm stores. I had to look around to find a 50' roll. I do put smaller mesh along the lower half. I had chicks walk right thru the 2 X 4 rectangles. I find all the stores have less stock of various small mesh fencing so one area has added rabbit fence, and I used chicken wire for another side.