When is chicken wire appropriate?

[ThinkingChickens]

We are designing a walk in run to be used with our Eglu Go and we'll be adding the Eglu Cube. Anyway, the girls are always locked in at night, no predator sightings so far. Is it safe to use chicken wire for the walk in run if the girls are always locked in the coop at night? Or, should I use hardware cloth regardless? If using hardware cloth does it need to be used on the whole thing or do some folks use it on the bottom and chicken wire on top. Advice is appreciated as we make our adjustments and write out plans. Thanks!

 

[patandchickens]

"Appropriate" is sort of a personal decision

Chicken wire will stop hawks and chickens (except, sometimes, the youngest baby chicks). It will not stop much of anything else.

Therefore, it is appropriate when you are not trying to keep mammalian predators out; if you ARE seriously concerned about keeping out mammalian predators, then it is not going to do the job nearly so well as many other kinds of wire mesh.

For your situation, I'd suggest asking yourself whether you care about the possibility of a loose dog or daytime raccoon finding itself on the other side of the run fence from your chickens. If you are deeply convinced that is impossible, or can live with the possibility of a disaster if it *should* happen, then there is nothing wrong with chickenwire. If OTOH on reflection you discover you do have a few doubts on the subject, I gotta tell you that anything else (no larger than 2x4 and heavy-gauge not garden-quality) is going to do a lot better job.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[teach1rusl]

JMO of course... But if my coop was inside a fenced, very secure yard, AND the chickens were always put indoors/pop door shut at night, I'd consider using chicken wire. Roaming dogs seem to be one of the most common daytime predators, and one could certainly tear through chicken wire if they wanted chicken for lunch. But with a secure, well fenced yard, roaming dogs would most likely not be an issue.
Without a secure yard, I would never use chicken wire on a coop myself. We just put 300 ft. of chicken wire around our garden, to keep our chickens OUT of it. I'll use it to protect my tomatoes, but not my girls

 

[Malbri]

I like to use hardware cloth as often as possible. The chicken wire is fine inside the coop to seperate sections, and we although we have never had anything chew through the wire when we had it covering the run outside, I did have a chicken killed because something was actually reaching its paw in and scratched her all up

 

[ThinkingChickens]

Our chickens live in a yard with a six foot cedar fence. We have three dogs of our own, but there is a gate separating the chicken area. I have never seen a raccoon in our yard in the seven years we've lived here but you never know. We have cats but those too don't come in our yard. I would love to use hardware cloth but we were looking at a minimum of $300 which just seems crazy. It's a tough decision. It seems like hardware cloth looks better too as it's more solid. We'll probably go with the hardware cloth but I'm doubting if predators will ever be much of a problem.

 

[gryeyes]

Chicken wire is a wonderful barrier to chickens. Not to chicks, but to "tweens" and full grown chickens. Keeps them in some place, or keeps them out of gardens. It protects plants well from chickens.

That is it. It won't stop a dog, it might stop a hawk, if you want to use it for the top of a run. But not the sides unless it's just one layer of a multi-layer run fence. Hardware cloth over the bottom section of a chicken wire run is workable against short predators....

 

[sammin71]

I am going to use 1x4 wire fencing for my run it was what i had for a play yard when my daughter was younger. If i recall it was like 25 bucks for a 4'x50' roll but it was 12 yrs ago shouldn't be much more than that now.

 

[brandislee]

Not to hijack, but reading this has brought up a few questions about the run I'm about to build.

My plan is to use 1x4 welded wire (6 foot high) for the actual fence, and then run 5' chicken wire, with the bottom 12 inches or so burried to deter diggers. Is the 1x4 welded wire a bad idea? Are there predators that can squeeze through something that small? My mom was concerned about weasels, but we're miles from a body of water, and I can't think of anything else that could get through something that small. And will the chicken wire be fine around the bottom (to deter predators from reaching through and keep baby chicks in) be fine, or should I use hardware cloth to do that?

And can baby chicks actually fit through the little 1'' holes in chicken wire? Because I just build a brooder cage in my coop out of chicken wire... I guess if it's a problem I can but cardboard around the bottom until they get bigger- I have my babies in an old dog crate now, which has about 1.5x3 inch holes, and that's what I did in there.

And the 1x4, 6 foot wire fencing is $50 a roll at Menards.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Do you perhaps mean 2x4 welded wire? (I've never seen 1x4, although of course it may exist out there somewhere). It is perfectly fine in terms of strength.

Are there predators that can squeeze through something that small? My mom was concerned about weasels, but we're miles from a body of water, and I can't think of anything else that could get through something that small

You don't have to be near water to have weasels. however the weasel tribe is really pretty exclusively nocturnal in hunting, so if you are going to lock the chickens into the coop every night by dusk without fail, that is probably not really an issue. The other things that get thru that size opening work roughly the same way -- the very smallest young raccoons, young possums, small skunks. Snakes and rats can get thru, but neither generally menaces adult chickens and in any case both are almost impossible to keep out if they really want "in".

And will the chicken wire be fine around the bottom (to deter predators from reaching through and keep baby chicks in) be fine, or should I use hardware cloth to do that?

Hardware cloth is more assurance, but chickenwire would do a "reasonable" job -- it won't keep predators from ripping it apart BUT since all you're really trying to do is forstall "reach through" losses, it generally does the job simply by keeping chicken heads where they belong and slowing down the reach of a predator.

And can baby chicks actually fit through the little 1'' holes in chicken wire?

The smaller ones can.

You mentioned burying the bottom of the chickenwire 12". You might want to consider other options, as that will not be much of a deterrant, while it *will* be a fair bit of work. If you're going to bury something, bury it deeper (at least 18" to deter most, tho not absolutely all, predators) AND use a much heavier gauge material (e.g. your 2x4 fence mesh) that will not rust through in a year or two. Yes, galvanized wire DOES rust when buried, and rust weakens it, and eventually you have nothing meaningful under there.

Frankly though I think that it is usually more sensible to do a 2-3' wide apron (of chickenwire is better than nothing; but heavier gauge mesh is better) all around the outside of the run fence, securely attached to the bottom of the run fence, with its free edge turned down a bit and securely pegged or weighted down, or covered with <whatever> (turf, mulch, gravel, rocks, dirt, concrete rubble, pavers, you name it). This is not that much more material, is a HECKUVA lot less work!, and just about as effective in keeping predators out.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Do you perhaps mean 2x4 welded wire? (I've never seen 1x4, although of course it may exist out there somewhere). It is perfectly fine in terms of strength.

Are there predators that can squeeze through something that small? My mom was concerned about weasels, but we're miles from a body of water, and I can't think of anything else that could get through something that small

You don't have to be near water to have weasels. however the weasel tribe is really pretty exclusively nocturnal in hunting, so if you are going to lock the chickens into the coop every night by dusk without fail, that is probably not really an issue. The other things that get thru that size opening work roughly the same way -- the very smallest young raccoons, young possums, small skunks. Snakes and rats can get thru, but neither generally menaces adult chickens and in any case both are almost impossible to keep out if they really want "in".

And will the chicken wire be fine around the bottom (to deter predators from reaching through and keep baby chicks in) be fine, or should I use hardware cloth to do that?

Hardware cloth is more assurance, but chickenwire would do a "reasonable" job -- it won't keep predators from ripping it apart BUT since all you're really trying to do is forstall "reach through" losses, it generally does the job simply by keeping chicken heads where they belong and slowing down the reach of a predator.

And can baby chicks actually fit through the little 1'' holes in chicken wire?

The smaller ones can.

You mentioned burying the bottom of the chickenwire 12". You might want to consider other options, as that will not be much of a deterrant, while it *will* be a fair bit of work. If you're going to bury something, bury it deeper (at least 18" to deter most, tho not absolutely all, predators) AND use a much heavier gauge material (e.g. your 2x4 fence mesh) that will not rust through in a year or two. Yes, galvanized wire DOES rust when buried, and rust weakens it, and eventually you have nothing meaningful under there.

Frankly though I think that it is usually more sensible to do a 2-3' wide apron (of chickenwire is better than nothing; but heavier gauge mesh is better) all around the outside of the run fence, securely attached to the bottom of the run fence, with its free edge turned down a bit and securely pegged or weighted down, or covered with <whatever> (turf, mulch, gravel, rocks, dirt, concrete rubble, pavers, you name it). This is not that much more material, is a HECKUVA lot less work!, and just about as effective in keeping predators out.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​