Run wire - is chicken wire okay in this situation?

[catchthewind]

One of our local stores doesn't sell 2x4 wire but has 2x2 wire for the same price as the other's 2x4, same gauge, I think 14. So I was going to go for the 2x2 for the smaller holes, but I assume chicken heads and raccoon arms can still get through there. Would it be safe to wrap chicken wire on the inside of the 2x2? I happen to have a 4 foot tall roll of it. Or would hardware cloth still be better?

The chickens will be locked in their coop at night, and probably free range all day, except for maybe a weekend this summer that we are going away and if we haven't had too many signs of predators sniffing around I'd like to leave the pop door open and just have someone come check on them.

 

[ranchhand]

I recommend hardware cloth, fastenened very securely. Chicken wire is really easy to tear through.

 

[brandislee]

I have the same question- wouldn't the chicken wire be okay as long as it's paired with the welded wire and secured to it really well?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I use 2" x 4" wire with that much despised chicken wire inside for the bottom 18". It is not as good as hardware cloth, but it works for me. It keeps their heads in out of danger. It is possible something could tear it, but with that 2" x 2" wire, I think it will help quite a bit.

It is really hard to build a run of any size and make it really predator-proof. If the top is open, a raccoon will have little problem climbing in. Is it possible to get someone to open and close the pop door while you are gone? It is possible you can do what you are talking about on that weekend and be OK, but you are at risk. How high a risk, I really can't say.

 

[GiddyMoon]

The 1/2" or 1" hardware cloth eliminates the need for doubling the larger wire with chicken wire..and a predator can easily grip the chicken wire, rip it, and get thru the large holes. Plenty of people do use chicken wire..you have to decide if that is something you want to use.

We have a situation where the run will be in a chainlink dog run and we are going to add hardware cloth on the bottom, I decided to go with the hardware rather than the chicken wire because it really isn't that much more expensive and does work and last a lot better.

 

[BackyardGuy]

My run is made out of chain link fence with chicken wire wrapped around the botton I have not have any problem

 

[catchthewind]

Thanks all, I do know that hardware cloth is more secure, but I thought since we have enough chicken wire already, if it were fastened behind the 2x2 things wouldn't be able to get leverage on it to tear it. And even if they did, they still wouldn't be able to actually get through the 2x2, they'd still have to wait for a chicken to get close enough to the specific spot they tore for them to reach. The 2x2 roll we'd get would be enough to cover the entire run including an apron, so even if we got hardware cloth for the bottom we'd still double it up. When I thought we'd be using 2x4 I planned to use hardware cloth for sure but since we're going to use 2x2 I'm thinking the chicken wire might be good enough.

I wouldn't leave them for the weekend with the pop door open unless the run was also covered securely as well. Currently, we don't know any of our neighbours well enough that I'd necessarily trust them to look after the chickens (we just moved here), and the people I do know that I'd trust, I'm not sure if they'd want to come out here to open and close the pop door. We're fairly rural and in the middle of summer it would likely involve them coming out quite late to close it or chasing chickens into the coop early. Anyway, it's not until the end of August anyway, so maybe by then we'll know the neighbours a little better.

 

[patandchickens]

If your goal is just to keep chicken heads in the run, and to *slow down* (not utterly prevent) predators reaching thru, then yes, chickenwire is pretty good in that specific situation. Not *as* good as hardwarecloth, but fairly close.

I'd sure be leery of leaving the popdoor open at night in that situation though. Too many things can get thru 2x4 wire or even 2x2...

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[claudicles]

Is chicken wire OK for the roof of a run? I'm in Australia so my only predators are foxes, birds and snakes. I have a small run which is pretty secure but I was planning on building a bigger run rather than free ranging. i walked outside in the middle of the after noon the other day and a fox ran through my yard and I found some fox poo on my front path yesterday so the foxes are pretty high profile around here. I know thay can rip through chicken wire but do they only do that at ground level or will they climb to do it?

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I do not know about your foxes, but in the US, grey foxes climb excellently well, and red foxes are decent climbers (like yer average dog, I'd say) when motivated. Yours are red foxes I think? I would not personally take the chance, but, it's a free country

Pat