I agree with this. Chicken wire is very easy for a predator to tear apart. I learned that the hard way when I was a kid. My mother (bless her well-meaning heart) built my first coop and looking back, I am ashamed to say I kept birds in it. She used chicken wire because, "It says chicken on it so it must be good, right?" Within the first year of use, a dog had pulled apart the wire like butter. I caught the beast with her head in the coop and my poor panicked D'uccle crying bloody murder, trying to keep away.
Hardware cloth is more expensive, but it will save birds' lives.
