Chicken Wire

[Araucana16]

What sort of protection does chicken wire provide against predators? It's not wimpy chicken wire, it has strong wires and is stapled with those large wood staples to thick wood.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Depends on the predator. Works ok for hawks, owls and cats but is mostly intended to keep chickens in - not predators out.
Big dogs, possums and especially coons can rip it apart.
A raccoon can tear through some pretty tough stuff but they can also reach through the 1" openings and pull chicken parts through.
Bears and mountain lions can shred hardware cloth.
Without those two, hardware cloth should be sufficient.
For those I would use expanded metal. The bear would probably just destroy the whole building.

 

[Araucana16]

So if coons are in the area what should I do about the run/coop?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Coons will be there. For the openings on the coop, well attached small mesh hardware cloth. Lock the chickens in there at night.
For the run, if you don't want to put the chickens in the coop at night, make it like Fort Knox. Dusk (and all night) is the biggest problem

 

[Ridgerunner]

The heavier the wire the more predators it will stop. The smaller the holes, the more predators it will stop. And you are right. How it is attached and what it is attached to makes a big difference too.

Most of the stuff that we call chicken wire is pretty thin gauge wire, maybe 19 to 22 gauge. A medium to large dog, coyote, raccoon, or maybe a determined fox can just rip it apart. It may stop a skunk or possum but it really doesn’t offer that much protection against a larger stronger predator. There is some stuff out there that is made like chicken wire but is made from heavier wire. It will stop more predators so it offers more protection. But there is no way to really answer your question. The heavier the wire, the smaller the holes, and the better it is attached the more protection it will offer.

The same is true for hardware cloth or other welded wire, not just chicken wire. There are things out there that can rip thin gauge hardware cloth apart too.