Hot take: people in my town keep building chicken runs with chicken wire and it's a total waste of time.

I watched a neighbor lose three hens to a raccoon last month because it just ripped right through their new chicken wire fence. That stuff is only good for keeping chickens in, not predators out. What's the point of a run if it doesn't actually protect them?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlie_allen2mo ago

Totally agree, it's basically a decoration. Saw a fox chew through a neighbor's wire like it was nothing. You really need hardware cloth for the bottom few feet at least.

wyattc762mo ago

How deep did you bury the hardware cloth? I learned the hard way that just laying it flat isn't enough. A raccoon dug right under mine. You gotta bend it out into an L shape and bury that part, like a foot deep, so they hit it and give up.

andrew7781mo ago

charlie_allen said it's basically a decoration, which honestly describes half the stuff in my shed. I bought a "heavy duty" tarp last spring thinking it would last years. First good wind and it was basically a kite with some shreds attached.