I have seen some posts saying that chicken wire does not keep out predators. Is this true? I might want to use it in my next run because love how it looks, but I am more concerned about my girl's safety. Thank you!
Go with hardware cloth, chicken wire keeps chickens in, but does not stop predators. Look at it like this; with your chickens, you just put out an all you can buffet for hungry predators or for bored dogs. Read the pest and predator section for attacks on what people thought was a secure coop. I lurked here for 3 months before building my coop. It is wood with hardware cloth inserts for ventilation because of the hot and humid climate and I put a hardware cloth apron on the ground all around 1 1/2 feet out from the coop to deter digging predators.
One inch is better than two inch chicken wire but predators will still push through it and end up eating the heads off of your birds, or they will dig underneath it. I have an apron around the base of my run and also tin that goes up two feet on the sides of my run.
About 6 weeks ago I ran outside to the godawful sound of a screaming/howling chicken and found a raccoon reaching through a hole in the chicken wire top of my run, trying to pull one of my chickens (now dead) through the hole. I yanked on the lower part of the chicken, keeping that part for myself, and the raccoon ran off with its head. That is what chicken wire can do for you to protect your chickens. Hardware cloth they cannot so easily break through. People will show you photos of racccoon cages sturdily built with tougher than hardware cloth sides which a coon has bent trying to escape. But coons will do far more damage desperately trying to get out, in my opinion, than trying to get IN. Hardware cloth or welded wire do well for the whole run. I used chicken wire only for the upper part that goes around tree branches and that ended up being the weak area.
