Is chicken wire ok for reducing my chain link opening? Updated

[patandchickens]

Dissenting opinion here.

While hardwarecloth is of course better, I do not think chickenwire is really THAT much worse from the perspective of (specifically and only!) preventing reach-thru incidents.

Chickenwire IS effective in keeping (adult, large-fowl) chickens from poking their heads thru the fence; and in terms of the other kind of incident, where you have a sleeping or preoccupied chicken next to the fence and it doesn't notice a predator come up and grab a handful of it, the chickenwire slows things down and limits stealth, so the bird has a much better chance of noticing and escaping before anything especially awful happens.

So when budget is an issue, I think it is perfectly reasonable to use chickenwire (or even a tough grade of plastic mesh) AS REACHTHRU PREVENTION, specifically. Yeah hardwarecloth is better but the chickenwire will still get "most of" the job done, in this instance.

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Going Quackers]

Quote:
Thanks for your thoughts, i think i'll post a picture of what i have done, probably gives a better idea... the birds in question are 5wk old muscovy.

 

[Going Quackers]

Ok i;ll start my pictures..

This is my roof, lattice screwed onto 2x8's and then i have covered it with chicken wire.. this runs across the entire top of the dog kennel the back half has an addtional layer being our shade tarp...

ok here is the side... (please ignore half deflated kiddy pool, they've been really enjoying it

) the chain link is the dog kennel that's the outside and the chicken wire is all on the inside of the run... again to reduce the chain link down. I hope these pictures help i can take better ones it's just hard we're pretty sunny

 

[jamband]

not to hijack this thread but why does everyone stop the chicken wire, hardware cloth etc at 3 ft........will not a weasel, mink, etc just climb up the 3 feet and then through the chain link?

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
It's not intended to stop that... although the weasel tribe is not usually THAT inclined to climb unless they really really wanna.

It's intended ONLY as reach-thru prevention, with the assumption generally being that the chickens will be locked indoors at night (which is really about the only time that weasels are out).

Pat

 

[jamband]

Quote:
It's not intended to stop that... although the weasel tribe is not usually THAT inclined to climb unless they really really wanna.

It's intended ONLY as reach-thru prevention, with the assumption generally being that the chickens will be locked indoors at night (which is really about the only time that weasels are out).

Pat

I meant more like if a dog kennel was used as the coop of protection.... So weasels. mink etc wont climb to enter?

 

[mulewagon]

I think one point is how big the run is - mine is 50 feet on a side, so raccoons can't scare the chickens into corners and grab them. The run fence is 6 foot dogwire with 4 foot chickenwire on the inside - just to keep the silly things from sticking their necks out for anyone to bite off!

The coop is chain link with chickenwire over it. Not tight at all against a determined predator, but it's irrelevant since the broodies took it over, so everyone else is sleeping out in the big run anyhow...

The outer perimeter is a large dog - the current large dog is too young to kill anything but mice and moles - we encourage him to roam around the woods below the coop and leave dog smell.

Why do I still have any chickens? Haven't the foggiest!

 

[speedy2020]

Quote:
Maybe get an electric wire to put around it or I've seen lots of different powder or liquid products to keep predators away, not sure if they work or if harmful to poultry. You can set traps, but you'll eventually get tired of catching and killing them and that will be a no win battle.

yeah trapping it would be a waste of time, i'm in the country... there will be another lol i just want to bang my head on a wall right now..

so basically what i need to do is completely remove all the chicken wire and use hardware cloth instead? is the lattice roof covered in chicken wire enough or does it need stronger to?

no way can i redo all this by myself.. and my helpers are all at work... not to mention financially... cripes it maybe cheaper to just build a run then...

If you have extra wire, just run along the bottom another layer.

 

[gale65]

We are going to use the 2 x 4 fencing stuff with chicken wire over the outside of it. This is what I hope works for us because I can't afford that much hardware cloth. Our run will be about 15' wide by about 30' long.

The lattice on top-is that strong enough? I think it looks like a great idea! Is it the kind that's already put together? And just nailed on top? I just showed dh and I think he likes the idea too (we hate the saggy chicken wire look on top). I think I may also do this on my rabbit run.

 

[Going Quackers]

Quote:
Measured it's 7.5 by 13...

I'll have to go measure it lol we also have ours situated right beside "the backyard" which is basically where we have a subdivision sized area fenced off so the dogs can be left loose... the entire property isn't fenced. One entire side walls butts up against another layer of smaller chain link which has (cough) a "few" dogs on the side

There in/out 24/7(dogs) the ducks even run over to them