Hardware cloth vs Aviary wire

[MeepBeep]

Wow the Walmart ad does say 1/2 but I've never seen 1/2 chicken wire.....might be an error.

There is 1/2" chicken wire, I use it on the bottom 24 inches of my chain link divider wall inside my coop, to keep small birds from getting adventurous and trying to squeeze through the chain link... I could have used regular 1" chicken wire but I got the roll of 1/2" stuff at Goodwill brand new for $1 and figured it was a good use for it...

 

[aart]

Building coop and run...and the first year of chicken keeping..... is overwhelming.
I took about 6 months to a year to research and plan before ever buying materials or cutting wood.

Went Fort Knox on coop, HC everywhere, lots of hasp latches with caribineers.
Much looser on run, 2x4 welded wire with apron...hawks were main concern and it has proven very reliable there.
Yard is also fenced with 2x4 ww, so should slow anything else down considerably.
BUT... I'm home 90% of time...if I was gone all day working, with birds in run, I would have gone much tighter on run.

IMO, if you're footing the bill, it's your call....but I live alone.

 

[DreamsInPink]

Thank you for replying... I am looking over what you said about your run. That's what I was considering using the chicken wire for... would that be acceptable? The coop is going to be secure! Using the hardware cloth for sure! The daytime run is what I was asking about for the less secure wire, but upon consideration, I don't know as I want to do that now anyway. If we go away for the day or whatever, I don't want to run the risk of predators getting inside the run. It will also be covered, I'm just not sure how I'm going to implement that yet part.

The coop and run are going to be inside a large fence made of woven wire where we will have goats and our miniature horse. I'd like to be able to let them out of the run sometimes too, for more free ranging. But only supervised. If we are home and out in the yard. That's the plan as of now anyway.

I'm not sure how big of a thread hawks are in our area. I've never seen any on my property, but that doesn't mean they aren't nearby.

I'm also considering an automatic door... I believe it's called a pop door? (why is it called that anyway?)