Hardware Cloth a must vs Chicken Wire?

[Blarneyeggs]

Our Coop is secure, but then we run the hardware cloth along the bottom two feet of the run as well. Cause every once in a while... someone... and I'm not naming names, forgets to close the coop door.

It's rough losing chooks to predators, but what's really rough is how that same predator will keep coming back once it's found a food source.

 

[fiddleblue]

This is what I was told when I started out: 1/2 inch hardware cloth for the 1st 3 feet up from the ground. Then use not chickenwire but welded wire 2 by 4 inch in size up from that. Cover the walls and the ceiling with the welded wire. The hardware cloth on lower section is not just to keep coons out (the welded wire in the larger size can do that) but so chickens don't stick their heads through and get grabbed by a predator, or predators don't stick hands through and grab a chicken. If you have any place above 3 ft high where a chicken could get to and stand, cover the nearby area of that with the 1/2 hardware cloth also.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I settled on 1 X 2 welded wire for the chicken run.

 

[bwalden]

I have 2x4 welded wire with 1" chicken wire over that. I buried the chicken wire about 8-10" deep. It is working good so far. I have lots of neighbors dogs running around my place also.

 

[Kaitie09]

I may have just been really lucky, but I have never lost a chicken to a predator (other than the dogs when one bird escaped).

I've had my birds for 7 years, half the run is 2x4 welded wire, the other half is chicken wire (we ran out half way through the build). The coop has chicken wire on the inside (big shed, we leave the doors open all summer long), and there is a regular screened window.

My coop is in the woods, and I know we have possums and racoons. That being said, I have never had an attack by either one. It may be because of the goat's pen is right next to the coop, or the fact that we have cat food outside 24/7. We have had possums and racoons eat the cat food, which it only about 10 feet from the chicken coop. They may just decide to go for the easier meal. I would not feel too horrible if we lost our bird to a predator, so I decided not to spend a ton of money on the run.

 

[Oakieridge]

Our runs are completely done in chicken wire. We haven't had an issue so far. Only loss was to our own dumb dog when someone forgot to shut the door to the run. Lost 3 pullets that day. Now that said we do have 3 big dogs that run our 8 acres 24/7 and we are raising up 2 pups on the place as well. I do hear the dogs barking behind the coops at night but then again there is a huge ravine back there and lots of critters that move at night. One of our dogs barks at everything that moves, lol.

 

[MisterT]

It sounds like I should change my chicken wire covering my windows and the space under the eaves (no soffits) to hardware cloth. Is height a factor too? Can a coon or weasel scale a 6' vertical piece of plywood?

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Weasels are magical and can effortlessly pass through walls to get at chickens.

 

[WinklerFarms]

I would say that if you don't have guard dogs use hardware cloth. I have two outside dogs that are tied up near my chicken tractors but out of reach. My tractors are all chicken wire as well as my 30 by 30 run. Never had a predator in either the tractors or run. There are a lot of coons in my woods but the dogs keep them away as well as a shotgun when I get the chance. I don't get to attached to the birds so if I do end up losing a few I won't be upset about it very much. Don't get me wrong I don't like losing birds. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Dutch552]

My guardian dogs have torn out of the backyard fence that they stay in most of they time that I had reinforced with chicken wire. They find the weakest spot where it is attached to the structure and then eventually mess with it until they can go over/under/through it. We have a bad problem with racoons and opossums so I reinforced my chain link dog kennel run with 1/2" hardware cloth for 24" and skirted it 12 inches out on the base to prevent digging. I know a lot of people have successfully used chicken wire for decades but I have too much time and money invested in my birds to lose a bunch to a stray cat or raccoon getting into the run one afternoon when I'm away.