Chicken wire OK if chickens locked in coop at night?

[CoffeeCow]

I just caught this little guy.. He chewed through my chicken wire the 1st attack, and got 2 of my ducks...
I fixed it to where he couldn't chew in with some cinder blocks...
The live trap got him, but not before he climbed my 8' fence and got another this morning...
So, chicken wire is NOT predator proof at all.. Even locking up the chickens at night, you still are taking a big gamble. I personally would make your run a little tougher to access.

[edit] By this morning, I mean.. I went out to feed them about 6:00, and they were fine, I went out again about 7:30 and one was dead ...

 

[becstalls]

Thanks for all the tips guys! As to the dog issue, we have one of our own that is kept in with a radio fence, we plan to add wire around the coop/run so he can't cross too close to it, but he'll be able to run around it. So far he's been pretty good at keeping other dogs out of our yard--again, nothing is permanent, but it helps. Our neighbors are stoked about the chickens and can lock them in if we go away. For the time being, chicken wire is what we can afford to get, so hopefully we'll be okay. We'll see. My husband likes to shoot things out of the upstairs window of our house, so that will hopefully help a bit.

Any suggestions for fortifying chicken wire a little better?

 

[Bawk Vader]

Quote:
All I could afford was chicken wire for the last pen I built. I may not be the perfect pen but it was done according to my budget. I used extra lumber (from pallets) to secure the chicken wire and used 5/8" staples double row over the entire thing. It's not everything proof, but it has kept the dogs, cats, racoons and oppossum out for quite a while. I shoot from my deck, but I'm sure an upstairs window will work just as well. Tell your husband happy hunting.

 

[MIgourdgirl]

We used the chicken wire but with smaller holes--I think it's one inch, and it has a hexagon design. The base of the wire is buried and then we have landscape timbers at the base all the way around. I used to have hardware cloth at the bottom 1 to 1 1/2 feet of the coop closest to the ground, but when we redid the run, we used the wire with smaller holes, and we always lock up at night and have never had any intruder problems. When I used to let the chickens free range, we lost chickens to hawks. We also have coyotes, coons, possums, etc., in our area, but I leave everyone in the run during the day and let them out into a fenced in grass area late afternoon, and this has worked fine.

 

[becstalls]

We got 2 rolls of chicken wire, the narrower one we plan to use on top, just cause it's easier to use the wider roll for the sides. After the sides, top and apron, I'm hoping to have enough left to double up the lower few feet of the run to keep the clucks from poking their heads out. We'll see.

When people have had chicken wire broken through, what part failed? Did the wire itself fail, or did the places where it was fastened fail? I figure since this is what I have to work with, knowing the failure points could help me to make it more secure for what I've got. Thanks!!!

 

[schellie69]

I would use the chicken wire for now but as soon as you can replace with welded wire, most predators can just rip through the chicken wire it is not that strong. we did use chicken wire for about a week until we got things we needed to built the perment pen. now when you say locked in they are locked in the coop not just the pen/coop area, I am lucky I live in town we do have racoons and possoms but since there are easy food sources they leave my chicknes alone good luck but I would think about some welded wire and hardware cloth check craigs list and freecycle you can get a lot of great stuff cheap or free for the hauling good luck.

 

[MIgourdgirl]

I haven't had anything break through, but I can tell you when I've checked for vulnerable spots in the past, it was the rusted areas that I was most concerned about. I used plastic "cable ties" (I think that's the name--you pull one end through and tighten) to connect overlapping chicken wire. I tried to keep a good eye out for any weakened spots or rusting spots.