Is chicken wire racoon and Cayote proof?

[columbiacritter]

Hardware cloth is about the only thing that will slow down a coon or coyote. Coos will reach thru chicken wire and rip your birds apart without ever getting into the run. Also buried chicken wire is nothing but rust in a matter of a few years.

Burying it 12 inches down foils most predators who want to dig in. I bent the bottom two inches of it out so anything dogging down would hit it's nasty razor tips. I also thru in nips and chunks if hardware cloth along the bottom of the trench. It worked! I think a coyote or a dog tried to dig in one night and hit that poky edge. They tried 3 different spots but never made it past the ambush.

My husbands only comment was he hopes he's not the one who has to tear it all up someday.

 

[patandchickens]

It really depends how strong your particular chickenwire is, and how motivated your particular predators are.

There are people who have had chickens for years and not had a problem.

There are also people who have had chickens for years and not had a problem, until one morning you see their post here about raccoons or coyotes or dogs or whatever going thru their chickenwire fence and eating their chickens. It never happens until the first time it happens.

And remember that once some predator finds out that there is free tasty food to be had in your henhouse, it will become much more difficult to keep 'em out after that.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[scooter147]

had a coon rip through chicken wire run sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
My chickens are locked up in Fort Knox at night but I do use chicken wire for the run, that booger just chewed right through it.
I have been feeding a little dry cat food for extra protien as the chickens are going through molt and they didn't clean it up so the coon did.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Quote:
Solid advice here. Knowing what I know now, I'd be afraid to use chicken wire as the first defense without something additional added to it. Chicken wire is designed to keep chickens in, but won't necessarily keep predators out.

Even if chicken-wire users haven't had a problem, I wouldn't take that as advice that chicken wire is a good ingredient for a Fort Knox-style coop.

 

[waynesgarden]

I had raccoon problems some years ago and built an ingeneous trap out of welded wire in a self-closing spiral design, fastened securely to a heavy wood platform and with a mesh top wired continuously to the sides.

All worked perfectly as the raccoon found it's way into the trap, a half-eaten hen from the night before serving as bait, the spring-loaded wire snapped closed and the critter was trapped inside, unable to open the entry, rip the wire from the wood or find an opening between the sides and the top.

So it simply broke the welds on the wire and left with his meal, leaving quite a bit of fur behind on the wire.

I'm sure the bandit would have prefered it if I had used something as flimsy as chicken wire.

Wayne

 

[prariechiken]

Use 1" X 2" welded wire overlayed with the chicken wire. The chicken wire will help keep chicks from squeezing through the welded wire and the smaller welded wire will help in keeping varmits out. Hardware cloth is good, but if you have a bird that likes to "run the wire", they will wear down and damage their beaks. Electric fences and good yard dogs to patrol the grounds are also valuable assets that any poultry person can have. A long gun and an itchy trigger finger helps greatly on our yard too...

 

[Attack Chicken]

I used to have a few rabbits and when I came home a dog had just ripped through the chicken wire like it was threat.Killed all my rabbits in that cage. Best advice get a tougher wire to use.If you go to a tractor supply store you should be able to find some better mesh