Tip for painting hardware cloth....

[leight54]

I painted my hardware cloth yesterday. I used a 4" roller and black Rustoleum paint, and laid each section (pre-installation) out in the driveway, on an old white sheet (to protect the driveway) and started roll, roll, rolling away.

I kept missing spots.

Then the lightbulb went off over my head! I got out my BLACK tarp and tried again. Against the black, I could see every spot I missed.

DUH!

Just thought I'd share!

 

[patandchickens]

Good idea!

It is actually easiest though (I hesitate to say this now

) if you wait to paint it til it's installed, then you can just roller on the paint as the fence stands, and it wastes less paint and makes less mess

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[leight54]

Ah, but I have other plans for the posts and rails. They are going to be charcoal gray, with the hardware cloth installed behind. It'll be a thing of beauty! (It is, in my mind, anyway.)

I'm trying to make my coop look as much NOT like a coop as I can. See, I'm going to have *secret* chickens.....

 

[bryan99705]

Quote:
I want to see the design for the muzzles your birds are gonna wear.

 

[aggie9296]

Why paint hardware cloth? To keep it from rusting or for aesthetics? Or camouflage?

 

[chickengrl]

We used to live in a HOA (before chickens) that had very specific requirements for fencing. It had to blend in with the wooded character of the deveopment. So no privacy fences and it had to be no more than 4 feet tall. My redneck husband gave them a plan which was a pasture fence using bull wire. Figured they would laugh it off. They LOVED it, just had to paint the wire so you couldn't see it. He left it on the roll and spray painted it, turning it as he went. He got great coverage that way and could get a roll done in in less than 20 minutes. Smart man!

 

[patandchickens]

Aha, I see what you mean. That's kind of clever, so you can use it to back up the obvious fence without *being* obvious.

I'm with bryan (above), though -- you would have to get awwwfful lucky to get chickens that are not noticeably chicken-sounding. It happens occasionally. It doesn't AFAIK happen *predictably*, even in the reputedly-quieter breeds.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Dooner]

So is a roller the best way to paint hardware cloth on an existing run? Do you paint inside and out? Any risk or harm to the chickens?

 

[patandchickens]

No risk to chickens. Roller is best b/c least waste and least splatter. Usually people paint only the outside if they paint at all, since the point is to render the hardwarecloth less visually-obtrusive so you can see the chickens better through it. But most people DON'T paint their hardwarecloth, because it doesn't last long.

Pat

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Painting the wire black makes it easier to see the birds inside. A lot of people paint the wire on their pigeon and dove aviaries.