Why hardware cloth for the run?

[drmeyes236]

If the chickens are locked up at night why do I have to use hardware cloth? Why can't I use chicken wire, which is a whole lot cheaper?

 

[rufus]

Chicken wire will keep chickens in, but it will not keep any thing out.
Hardware cloth and welded wire are money well spent. The stuff never wears out, and unless you have bears in the neighborhood they are the best you can do.

Rufus

 

[codybird]

Coons have been known to pull a chicken through chicken wire one piece at a time and eat it and never go into the pen.

 

[Anny]

Alot of predators ( like dogs and cats wondering outside) will be out day or night. Chicken wire is very flimsy and you can easy get threw it.

 

[Msbear]

I use chicken wire on all my runs. ..have never had any problems. If you live in an area where a coon or something will come out during the day and attack your birds, than you may want to consider upping it to welded wire... otherwise, there is no need.

It keeps my chickens in and everything else out just fine. If a dog had half a day to dig under it when no one was home, that may be one thing... maybe keep the birds up if you plan to be gone all day but your birds will absolutely let you know if something suspicious is trying to make its way inside. But, I have never heard of a cat biting its way through chicken wire ...we have lots of strays here and they never even look twice at my chickens... and I have bantams. I do lock mine up at night when most predators are on the prowl. ..and I have welded wire on the windows of my coops.

 

[lalaland]

um. just to point out that a determined dog can dig under in about 5 minutes. But whether it is chicken wire or welded wire won't matter if a dog does dig under - lay down fencing on the ground and tie it to the upright fence to take care of that.

Its a roll of the dice. Sooner or later, and it might be a year or two, something will get to your chickens with only a chicken wire fence. Unless you live somewhere (can't imagine where that is) that there just aren't any predators. Having a dog outside to run off predators ups the odds in your favor.

 

[LynneP]

We are humans- we make mistakes, we are delayed, we think we can take 'one more hour'. Stuff happens.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-ThinkWeasel

 

[Quillgirl]

A black lab in my brother's neighborhood DESTROYED a chicken-wire run in about 5 minutes and killed all chickens in the coop except a couple. My lab/terrier mutt chewed through the back corner of a built in cabinet and the baseboard in an hour trying to get a chipmunk that a cat brought in the house. I know he could get through chicken wire faster.

Dogs on a mission can be very strong.

My run is hardware cloth and it has some impressive dents in it at about raccoon height! Nothing got in though.

 

[elmo]

Snakes and rats can easily go through the holes of chicken wire. Anything that can slip through 1/2 by 1/2 inch hardware cloth is probably more likely to be eaten by the chickens than eat the chickens.

 

[DarkWolf]

I'm going with chicken wire myself. Buddy of mine has a coop about a mile away from us with chicken wire and he's had no issues at all since he built it years ago. Plus my coop is close to the dog run where the dogs have 24hr access to the outside. So if they hear anything, they will bark and scare it off.. Or at least alert me.

As for snakes and rats.. They can easily go through anything. A rat if interested will chew through the floor to get in. And snakes? Will be after the eggs, not the chickens.