The Truth about Chicken Wire / Hex Netting...

[dangerouschicken]

My latest run I used hardware cloth on the sides and chicken hex on the top and for the door. It came to about $35 for everything. I think that is reasonable, especially since the "coop" is just a plastic storage bin on its side with a roost in the middle. Cheap but it works!

 

[Guitartists]

With all the problems concerning the 1" opening... why don't they make it smaller?!

 

[ZooMummzy]

Quote:
Good question!

 

[dangerouschicken]

Really good question! Time to start a hex factory?

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Carnage is right! A friend of mine had a raccoon that actually ate a chicken (while it was alive) a bite at a time through ONE ONE-INCH OPENING. It had to have taken at least an hour, but all that the racoon left was the feathers; that's it, just the feathers. There was no damage done to the chicken wire whatsoever, not even the one, one-inch hole in the wire.
Other than keeping the chickens in, chicken wire is worthless. When I build my run (hopefully, next week), I'm going with 1/4- and 1/2-inch hardware cloth on the inside of the fence and 2x4 (or smaller) farm fencing on the outside.

 

[pbjmaker]

Do you think the chicken wire would be OK if your chickens were locked in their coop at night? We will have chain link for the pen with chicken wire along the bottom for now. We really don't have any predetors except raccoons. And apparently they will go after full size chickens? I always thought it was just the babies- but I didn't really know.

 

[ZooMummzy]

Quote:
I don't think so especially since I've heard of raccoons attacking during the day. I guess it's rare but it does happen. Plus there are so many other things that could grab a chicken through that wire during the day. I just wouldn't want to take the chance, personally. My run looks like a maximum security prison!

 

[Rivers]

Lots of interesting talk here.

Im building a coop and am planning to have a large square cut out on the front door to provide light & ventilation. I plan to cover this in chicken wire which I have already purchased. Im really surprised to hear all these tales of birds being eaten right through the wire.

I am however in the UK and we do not have racoons, we do however have foxes. I would be very interested to hear about accounts of fox attacks, how strong they are and how much damage they can do. Can they tear/chew through chicken wire for example? The roosts in side the coop will be high/far enough that the birds are not against the wire and hopefully wont get bitten through the wire.

But I am a little worried about foxes trashing this door & wire assembly as people keep telling me they are rather strong.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Well of course it depends on the gauge of the wire.

But I would say that a fox seems to be comparable in strength to a smaller dog or non-huge raccoon in what their strength seems to be, and both of THOSE can rip typical chickenwire apart (even if it seems sturdy to YOU), so my advice would definitely be to use something stronger.

I mean, you might turn out to have very strong chickenwire or very weenie foxes, and of course you never know when the "dice will roll the wrong way" so it is perfectly possible to have a totally UN-predatorproof coop and not lose any chickens for potentially years and years... but, you can't predict your luck. And a better grade of wire mesh really doesn't cost much, especially for just a small area like you're talking about.

So, given the low cost of doing it more safely, versus the potentially high cost of using chickenwire (both in terms of losing chickens someday AND in terms of once the foxes get a meal they will try much harder the next time even if you've beefed up the defenses)... well, you can make your own choice but I think you can figure out what MY choice would be <g>

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[NonnasBabies]

My run is covered in chicken wire. I free range everyday so if something was going to get them during the day they would whether I had chicken wire or not. At night they sleep in their coop so a coon has no way of pulling them through the holes. Now if they tear through the wire then that's a different story. Then that'll be something I'd have to deal with!!

What's crazy sometimes is reading the posts where someone advocates NOT using chicken wire but have only netting covering the top of there runs!! I've just never understood that way of thinking!!