What size hardware wire?

[MarieNC]

We are reinforcing our run with hardware wire, but I'm having trouble finding 1/4 inch wire more than 2 feet wide and 10 feet long, but I have found 1/2 inch in four foot width rolls of 25 feet. Will 1/2 inch be too wide? It doesn't seem that a snake can fit through that size wire but ya'll have more experience with this than I do.

 

[Baymen Moe]

You'll be fine with the 1/2in. My run is done in 1/2 inch and nothing has gotten in. My coop and run is just over a year old. I think you'll find the majority of us that use hardware cloth use the 1/2 inch.

 

[MarieNC]

Thank you! I was starting to worry there.

 

[Arthur]

Hi, I am new here and know very little about chickens. But I do know a good bit about snakes,and if they want in they will find a way. I'm thinking I would rather have snakes than rodents. ;-]

 

[woodguy]

Quote:
+1

 

[speakup4kids]

I have both the 1/4 and the 1/2 hardware wire and to be perfectly honest I think the 1/4 inch isn't as strong as the 1/2 inch. The 1/2 inch just seems to have thicker wire and like it would be tougher for something to tear apart. I started with the 1/4 inch and finished off my coop with the 1/2 inch because of this.

 

[joebryant]

My run is 100% 1/2-inch hardware cloth; however, for the sometimes-open windows of my coop I made a frame with hinges and put on 1/4-inch hardware cloth to be sure that a snake could not get in.

 

[elmo]

A snake that is small enough to fit through a 1/2" by 1/2" opening is more likely to be preyed upon by the chickens than prey upon them. I fed a small snake that had gotten into our pool to one of our bantams the other day: she killed it by smashing it on the ground several times, then slurped it up like a noodle. Yum!