Hardware Cloth for a Chicken Coop

About the phrase "predator-proof"

It is the phrase people search for, and it describes something that does not exist. We used to use it on this site, in a page title, and we took it out.

The reason is not pedantry. Someone who believes their coop is predator-proof is the person who stops checking the hardware cloth where it meets the ground, and stops walking out at dusk to count heads and drop the latch. The word does the damage by ending the attention, and the attention is most of what keeps a flock alive.

eXtension Poultry puts the same point in colder language: an enclosure may not be sufficient on its own to protect a flock. Everything below is about making a coop predator-resistant, which is achievable, measurable, and worth doing properly.

Chicken wire versus hardware cloth

The cost difference is real and it is the reason people talk themselves into chicken wire for the coop. Run the numbers on the openings only. You rarely need hardware cloth over an entire run to fix the actual weak points, which are the vents, the windows, the pop door and the base.

Why an inch of gap is not a small gap

The least weasel is, in eXtension's figures, roughly 165 to 205 millimetres long and 30 to 55 grams. That is a body built to follow its own skull through anything, and it is the reason a gap that looks far too small to matter is not too small.

Snakes set the other end of the scale. eXtension notes that snakes able to enter gaps of a quarter inch or smaller do not cause predation damage, which is where quarter-inch mesh earns its place if you have them.

The apron is the part people skip

eXtension Poultry recommends burying wire along the fence border at least 12 inches deep and toeing it outward about 6 inches.

The outward toe is doing the work, and it is worth understanding why. A digging predator starts at the base of the fence, because that is where the smell is. It hits buried wire and keeps digging in the same place. It does not reason its way to backing up two feet and starting again, which is exactly what the outward toe would require.

If digging a trench is not realistic, lay the wire flat on the ground in an apron extending outward from the base, pin it down, and let the grass grow through it. Within a season it is held by roots and is harder to lift than buried wire.

Fastening, and the failure nobody expects

Hardware cloth almost never fails in the middle. It fails at the edge, where it is fastened, because that is where a raccoon can get a grip and work.

• Screws with fender washers, every few inches along every edge. The washer is what stops the wire pulling over the screw head.
• Not staples on their own. Poultry staples hold wire against wind. They do not hold it against something pulling deliberately and repeatedly.
• Overlap panels by a couple of inches and fasten through both layers rather than butting them and hoping.

eXtension also notes that windows and doors must be securely covered with heavy-gauge mesh or screening, and that secure flooring such as a concrete slab or solid wood protects against digging underneath the structure itself.