Tip to make your hardware cloth runs look better

[LynneP]

Pat is right- if you use apple cider vinegar in a galvanized waterer you can poison your birds with the leachate and ruin the waterer. If you really want the hardware cloth to be black, why not devise a way to spray the hardware cloth black, assuming the metal enamel is safe? I sue wouldn't disturb the surface of the zinc, not around birds.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Actually I think everyone, including the O.P., is agreed on painting it black (a roller works best IME, not spray or brush)... the question is just whether and how to prepare the surface

Pat

 

[Kung Foo Chicken]

The bird owners in the parrot groups removed the top layer of zinc because it would kill their birds because they chewed on the wire. They then painted with several layers of latex enamel paint. The aviary I used for 10 years without rusting and finally sold it to a neighbor when I moved. She is still using it.

But, etching does help the paint stick. Thanks for the advice on the roller. I maybe wouldn't use etching if it touches the ground. If your wire is painted before putting on the run you could avoid a certain height with etching. The painting is messy work as it always is with me!

Anyway my outdoor chick brooder I can leave at the other end of the yard and see what they are doing in the cage.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

LynneP wrote:
If you really want the hardware cloth to be black, why not devise a way to spray the hardware cloth black, assuming the metal enamel is safe?

You can BUY black hardware cloth:


http://www.google.com/search?comple...ct=result&cd=1&q=black+hardware+cloth&spell=1​

 

[Ridgerunner]

I did a web search and I was partially wrong. The acid is not to etch the surface, creating a rough pattern to help the paint stick. It appears there is a deposit on galvanizing when it leaves the factory that should be removed before painting. (Some sites call it waxy, some call it chalky, some just say there is a deposit, some don't mention it.) The three recommended ways are to let it age (I saw four and six month recommendations, depends on the site) lightly sandpaper it, or use a mild acid wash. Some sites did not mention removing it at all.

Now, back to opinion and observations.

As with painting your house, the right surface preparation will give you a better paint job. You don't have to chip and scrape and power wash, but some of us do. I don't go to that much trouble with everything I paint, either. Depends on what I am painting and why. I'm not painting my buried galvanized wire around the coop. I figure at my age the galvanizing will probably last longer than me anyway.

The galvanized material that is going in the ground (such as buried fencing or aprons around the coop or run to deter predators) is exactly where I would recommend painting it. I asked the professionals offshore why they were painting the galvanized material. They told me it was to extend the life. On one platform, they showed me galvanized grating that had been accidently oversprayed when the supports and grating was replaced. (The grating support member was painted, the the grating was galvanized. They were replaced at the same time.) The pure galvanized material was rusted away. The grating that had been accidently sprayed (without a special surface prep, by the way, but it may have been aged) looked like new. The oil companies are not going to spend big money to paint something to make it pretty. They are trying to avoid spending much bigger money replacing it. And even a bad paint job made a big difference.

I don't know which primer is the best to use with which topcoat. There are many products out there and I'm sure most of them will work fine, just read the label directions. The folks at the paint store will probably be able to help, at least as far as their products go. And I don't know how long to leave the vinegar on. The guys offshore were washing it off after a few minutes. It did not smell like vinegar but I would guess it was pretty mild. You would not want the acid to eat off the galvanizing, just that coating.

LynneP makes a good point. The vinegar and the rinse water will contain some product of the chemical reaction. I would not let them drink from puddled rinse water and would probably do this prep work away from the birds if possible. I also would not let the birds have access to the painted fencing until it was dry just like I would not spray my fruit trees when he chickens are downwind. Think about what you are doing and take appropriate precautions.

My final $0.02 worth. From what I have seen and what the professionals showed me, even a bad paint job will greatly extend the life of galvanized material.

 

[conradpdx]

It takes a lot more than a quick spray of vinegar to adversely affect galvanize. I'm an welder on an iron working crew and deal with galvanize all the time. The only time you'd really have to worry about it is if was galvanized paint (cold galv.). This stuff would perhaps come up if soaked in the vinegar for a long time.

Looking at hardware cloth I assume (though not 100% sure) that it's hot dipped galvanize. This means that the steel fence is made and then dropped into a big old vat of molten galvanize (zinc) and the zinc is then bonded to the steel at the at the molecular level (basically kinda like soldering it cause it will infuse it's self deep into the steel). I'm not sure that even soaking the cloth in vinegar if it's hot dipped would do much unless you did it for an extremly long time.

I'm suppose to grind all galvanize off any weld points on a building, but often I can't because if the material I'm welding is less than a 1/4 thick inch the hot dipped galvanize penetrates so deep that if I were to grind it there wouldn't be enough raw steel to weld too.

 

[cmom]

I think it's a good idea. I'm going to try it. Many times I have tried to take a picture of my birds through the wire and the wire shows up really well in the pictures. It's hard to see the birds.

 

[LynneP]

I would be willing to BUY black hardware cloth- good to know it's available. I haven't seen it here, but if it exists our hardware store would get it. Maybe for run #2, next year! Thanks...