Hello from Central Arkansas

[donniek]

My name is Donnie and I'm in the researching phase of raising chickens. I'm currently designing my own coop for 6 (or so) birds for personal use egg production, however, in the future I may very well build a second coop for some meat birds.

I stumbled across this site while Googleing chicken coop designs and have found it to be a wealth of information. In fact, the only thing I haven't been able to find is a Chicken Wire VS Hardware Cloth debate

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Welcome to BYC!

Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Best of luck while you plan for your flock and build your coop! Glad your finding the materials you need.

Be sure to check out our learning center and coop section.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center
https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/2/Coops

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC!

So glad you could join our community! The problem with chicken wire is that it is flimsy. It can be chewed right thru by all kinds of night time critters. These "things of the night" have a LOT of time on their hands and if they think there is a chicken dinner waiting after all the work they have to do to get to them, they will persist. They will come back night after night until they get in. So just don't use chicken wire. Period. Use hardware cloth. Why worry over it. Hardware cloth requires side cutters to get thru as long as you install it correctly. So as long as the predators are not carrying tools, your birds will always be safe.

Great to have you aboard and welcome to our flock!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Good luck with your coop build! There are a number of threads, ie, though there isn't really much debate that chicken wire is really only good for keeping chickens in, and if you have any sorts of predators around you will want hardware cloth etc https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/324274/hardware-cloth-vs-chicken-wire

 

[donniek]

Thanks for the welcomes and thanks for the link Kelsie... that was exactly what information I was looking for.

 

[drumstick diva]

Of course the hardware cloth needs to be securely attached to framework - after you go around cutting and attaching, you'll see why predators do not like it.

 

[Wyandottes7]

Welcome to BYC!

We're glad to have you.

 

[BantamLover21]

Glad you joined us!

Feel free to ask lots of questions! We're all here to help.