They know what they are talking about!! I thought we had a possum or maybe a rat, living under my back deck..... so I built a barrier fence to keep it out. I dug a trench and buried the wird about 8-9 inches deep. I just used chicken wire instead of the hardware cloth mesh , since I 'thought' I was only dealing with a small rodent. WEll...turns out it was not a possum or a rat, and I should have used hardware cloth...as that critter busted out of that wire like it was a spider web!!! I am glad this was not a barrier around my chicken house!! So when you write in and ask if you should use chicken wire for a barrier, and the folks on BYC say NO, to always use hardward cloth, please heed their advice.... as this is proof of how powerful a coon or groundhog, or whatever it is living under my deck!! NOW DH has a live trap set and ready and I am goin to redo my barrier the right way, using the hardware cloth as I should have done in the first place!!
It's been said dozens of times before, but chickenwire keeps chickens in but doesn't keep anything else OUT. Thanks so much for giving us graphic evidence of the weakness of chickenwire! Bless you!
I am soooo going to show this to my DH! He gave me the hardest time about using hardware cloth instead of the cheaper chickenwire. He said I was over protecting. Well this will show him. Thanks for posting it.
Excelent post and so true. I use chicken wire at my house to go around the outside of my chainlink fence I keep my chickens in. This keep little arms from reaching in and hurting my girls.
Glad you posted this! My DH thinks he knows all (he never had a chicken in his life) and said that I was stupid for wanting Hardware cloth instead of chicken wire...
