I have a chicken wire run, mostly to keep the chickens contained - which it doesn't always do. After watching my husband trip and fall through it leaving a large hole I have learned not to trust my chickens safety to it.
Many predators can just climb those first few feet of wire to the chicken wire, it will prevent the grabbing a piece at a time though. A squirrel can probably just squeeze through the chicken wire. Unless you have a weasle problem you can use 2x4in. welded wire (cheaper than using hardwire cloth) and put hardwire cloth around the bottom three feet or so to prevent grabbing.
Chicken wire is for keeping chickens in and not for keeping predators out. We use 5 foot chain link with chicken wire or hardware cloth over it for protection.
i asked this very question, myself, not too long ago. my wire is new and i can't tear it, or neither can my big, stout, weight-lifting boy. however, we have a family friend that said ''something'' tore holes in hers, so i asked here. the response was unanimous, coons will go right through it. personally, i don't see how a coon could chew through it, but i am bowing to experience of others. i did skirt my wired enclosure with 37'' high 26 gauge steel roofing panels all around, except for the door section where i have 2 layers of chicken wire covered over with 36'' high hardware cloth. it would take a bear to go through that, and we do not have them here in MS. when i get through with my winter greens garden, i am going to completely cover any remaining chicken wire with hardware cloth. i have a 110# dog that roams the yard at night, so i am not terribly concerned with coons right now. it is chicken snakes that have given me the blues this year, i've killed 5 in my egg boxes, since spring. i built a deluxe 16'x20' chicken pen, with 1/2 all enclosed with roofing steel panels and galvanized tin roofing, and the rest skirted with steel panels and 2 layers of chicken wire. ----------- it NEVER occured to me that a coon could rip it's way in,, now i know better.
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Probably not. Why would it want to? I know they'll chew on lead but steel is too hard for them, and they're not strong enough to pull it apart like a coon would.
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Probably not. Why would it want to? I know they'll chew on lead but steel is too hard for them, and they're not strong enough to pull it apart like a coon would.
No, they can't. I've had one trapped in a chicken wire enclosure and he was trying for all his life to get out but couldn't gnaw through the chicken wire.
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Probably not. Why would it want to? I know they'll chew on lead but steel is too hard for them, and they're not strong enough to pull it apart like a coon would.
No, they can't. I've had one trapped in a chicken wire enclosure and he was trying for all his life to get out but couldn't gnaw through the chicken wire.
Really? I thought squirrels would easily squeeze through chicken wire.