Is it true some predators can break through chicken wire?

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.
 
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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.


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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.
 

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