In article <47ef6346$0$765$4c56b...@master.news.zetnet.net>,

|>
|> > What gauge?  Chicken wire comes from gauges that I can tear with only
|> > gloved hands up to stuff that I need wire-cutters for.
|>
|> I wondered that too.

What I would do, were I making a chicken run, would be to use fairly
heavy 2-3" chicken wire to keep foxes, dogs and cats out, and run
1-2' of 1/2" chicken wire along the bottom, inside, to keep chicks in.
That's a LOT cheaper than using weldmesh.

If badgers were a problem, it would be necessary to use weldmesh (and
I don't mean the 1/2" stuff, either!), but it would ALSO be necessary
to continue it down at least 1' into the soil, probably 2'.

The design of a rat-proof run is left as an exercise for the reader :-)

|> > And are you sure that it is foxes and not badgers making the initial
|> > entry?  Badgers like eggs, after all :-)
|>
|> They will eat chickens too.

And, of all of the UK wild and domestic predators, they are the only
one which can tear chicken wire open without difficulty.  Dogs can do
it, but my understanding is that they typically do only for the third
leg or when starving.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.