Should i paint the run's chicken wire?

[FoodKillah]

Hello, i am building a new run/coop and i thought that the chicken wire might rust over the years. I have painted the metal pipes that make the run, green, before i installed the chicken wire. Its galbanized, but rust, dust and feathers will not let it shine like new forever. I thought it might look ugly over the years too.

Should i paint all the chicken wire green? Or isnt worth the effort? Its kinda big run 6 feet high with 1/2 inch chicken wire. Its not that if it looks bad you would tell from some distance, only if you get close.

Do you paint yours? If not, does it look bad over the years?

What do you think? Will i be sorry later if i dont paint it now, or not.

-I already painted the bottom part a few inches, because as i level the run up a little bit, that will be under the soil and some rocks, and i thought it would rust in few months.-

-edited to fix title typo-

 

[annie3001]

i wouldnt paint the wire.

 

[OkChickens]

Quote:
I wouldn't paint it either, that would be a whole lot of work for it to possibly rust in a year.

-Nate

 

[MamaChic21]

I've only painted mine to match the rest of the coop and I tried painting it but it took a long time so I spray painted. It costed a lot of money but I wouldn't either. Other chicken wire I've had for 2yrs now that is gray and didn't rust at all.

 

[greenriver]

No, don't paint it. It won't stick anyway.

 

[LynneP]

And also, chickens peck at everything- no sense risking them eating the paint...

 

[kuntrygirl]

Don't paint it.

 

[FoodKillah]

Ok i got the point. I thought roller painting it with a small roller with a special paint for metal would work and wont cost much.

But since all votes are against my silly idea, i will not paint it

So are we all doomed with rusty chicken wires?

MamaChic21, was that gray wire, gray, when you bought it? or it got gray after those 2 years?

 

[darkmatter]

My original chicken wire run lasted 7 to 10 years before rust affected the integrity of the fence. And then it was where the fence contacted the ground. My new larger run (see my BYC page) has an 18 inch section of plastic coated fencing buried 6 inches with the chicken wire part suspended from overhead #9 galvanized wire, 6 feet, attached to the buried wire by J-clips and attached to the overhead #9 wire by rings (like a shower curtain) to allow flex and stretch with future tightening an easy possibility. This proved advantageous when last winter a tree fell on the run fence and I was able to remove the limbs and reattach/tighten the fencing back up. I made the corner posts from Osage Orange Hedge posts set in concrete and the runner posts from T-posts with Rebar welded to them to give me the 6 1/2 foot height and then I put a ring on the top so the #9 wire freely runs through and is attached to the corner posts-------makes it easy to tighten up the entire length at once.

 

[7L Farm]

The wire has a coating on it already.