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Re: Linking chicken wire

Mary Fisher <mary.fis...@zetnet.co.uk>

"Nick Maclaren" <n...@cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote in message

news:fsnpuj$7an$1@gemini.csx.cam.ac.uk...

> In article <47ef6346$0$765$4c56b...@master.news.zetnet.net>,
> "Mary Fisher" <mary.fis...@zetnet.co.uk> writes:
> |>
> |> > 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.

Last year we found that chicks could get through small holes so Spouse
fastened a 6" high length of 1/2" mesh round the bottom. Same as you.

> 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'.

And something underneath too.

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

<sigh> Yes ...

> |> > 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.

Luckily they can't get into our garden - not that I think there are many
round here ...

> Dogs can do
> it, but my understanding is that they typically do only for the third
> leg or when starving.

Third leg?

Mary