Everyone who keeps backyard chickens needs to ensure keeping their birds safe from predators. Wild animals like raccoons, weasels, and even snakes can easily get inside coops and harm your birds.
If you keep a garden with vegetables and fruits, then your free-ranging birds are bound to get tempted and feast on your produce.
To avoid these issues, you must use a chicken wire fence. A chicken wire fence helps keep your birds away from your produce and also prevents harmful predators from getting inside the coop.
Table of Contents
The Best Chicken Wire Fences
1. YARDGARD Chicken Wire Fence
YARDGARD fences are available in different sizes; it is galvanized for long-lasting rust protection.
The chicken wire fence is ideal for residential and commercial use and can be used for restricting rabbits and chickens.
People with a backyard garden can also use this sturdy wire to support their plants, prevent wild animals, minimize soil erosion, and confine their compost pile.
You can also use the wire for keeping a roof-less portable chicken coop or dog kennels covered.
Pros
- YARDGARD wire is maneuverable, lightweight, easy to install, and yet sturdy
- It easily keeps your mulched flower beds safe from free-ranging chickens: no more mulch in the coop or the yard
- Value for money
Cons
- Has pointy edges which could harm animals
- Might not keep out larger animals, animals with sharp teeth, or digging animals like weasels.
2. Amagabeli Garden Home Hardware Cloth Galvanized Welded Cage
Amagabeli hardware cloth is galvanized for added strength and rust protection.
This keeps chickens and rabbits safe from raccoons and other animals. At the same time, the wire can be cut with sturdy scissors to mold and shape as needed.
Amagabeli wire is even used in large engineering projects.
Pros
- Best-selling chicken wire with hundreds of positive reviews
- The versatile wire can be used around a chicken coop, chicken run, for protecting raised garden beds, and to keep dogs from escaping and wild animals from entering into the yard
- This high-quality wire is easy to cut, mold, and shape
- It is also sturdy and extremely durable
Cons
- Tends to rust after a few days
- Uneven spacing
- Sharp corners cut hands.
3. GoPlus Hardware Cloth Wire Fence
GoPlus hardware cloth is double galvanized and zinc-coated.
This ensures maximum strength, rust protection, durability, and corrosion resistance.
At the same time, the metal is soft enough to roll easily and cut through. Use it to protect your animals and plants. It is especially beneficial for keeping snakes out of chicken coops.
Pros
- Easy to cut through and shape as per your needs; yet very sturdy
- Can be held together with nail staplers
- Versatile enough for use on dog kennels and poultry pens
- Value for money
Cons
- Prone to rusting after a few years.
- Slightly heavier gauge wire makes it difficult to work with.
4. MTB Supply Galvanized Hexagonal Poultry Net
MTB supply galvanized poultry net is lightweight and sturdy.
At the same time, being made from very high-quality, sturdy material, it ensures keeping your chicken safe from predators.
Apart from livestock confinement, you can also use it for making garden fences or preventing your dogs from escaping.
Pros
- Simple and convenient, easy to use
- Sturdy and durable
- Versatile for multiple garden and backyard uses
- The best-selling chicken wire that offers value for money
Cons
- Poor packaging and rolling, which makes it extremely difficult to unwind and unroll the wire
- The big holes might not prevent smaller animals from coming in or escaping out.
5. Tenax Hex Poultry Fence
Tenax poultry fence is perfect for backyard cages and coops.
It comes in 4 different sizes, and each pack can contain 2, 3, or 4 wires.
The product is known to have a life expectancy of 3-5 years.
Pros
- Easy to use and install
- Sturdy and durable; unlike other fences, it is made using sturdy plastic that is free from rusting and corrosion.
- Value for money
- The fence has small hexes that keep the tiny chicks safe and prevents them from escaping.
- It can be easily secure with zip ties. Does not need any additional hardware
- Attractive black colored chicken fence wire
Cons
- The plastic wire can be easily chewed through by animals with sharp teeth
- The product does not come with zip ties; you need to purchase them separately.
6. Best Choice Products Multipurpose Galvanized Chicken Wire
Best Choice Products galvanized steel chicken fence wire is useful for keeping out snakes, raccoons, and other animals from getting inside your coop.
You can also shape it as a tree guard. It is durable, easy to use, easy to install, and will surely guarantee you peace of mind.
Pros
- Well built wire; sturdy and durable
- One of the top-rated, best-selling wires on top retail sites
Cons
- Causes punctures and wounds while cutting it
- Soft enough for sharp teeth to cut through.
7. Easy Gardener Chicken Wire
Easy Gardener tough chicken wire fencing is easier to set up than most chicken wires available in the market.
It helps keep chickens safe from predators, and you can also use it around your garden to keep the birds from destroying your produce.
Pros
- Sturdy and durable; easily keeps chicken and poultry birds safe and secure.
- Easy to install
- UV treated fence or long-lasting durability
- Lightweight yet sturdy enough to prevent corrosion and rust
- Can easily be attached to trees and posts
- Economical and value for money
Cons
- While it is meant to protect your yard from deer menace, some users reported that larger deer with antlers could easily tear the net. Some deer also jumped over the 7-foot fence.
Types of Chicken Wire Fences
There are several options before you when it comes to selecting a chicken wire fence. You could either use hardware cloth or go in for wire poultry fences.
Both options come with their pros and cons.
Hardware cloth
A hardware cloth, like its name indicates, is a fine mesh of wire made using galvanized steel or zinc.
It has much smaller-gauge compared to traditional chicken wire fences and is more convenient if you have smaller birds or chicks.
Since it is made using galvanized steel or zinc, it is protected from corrosion and rust.
Compared to traditional chicken wire fences, hardware cloth does a much better job of protecting the chickens. You can use galvanized ½ or ¼ inch hardware cloth for protecting your birds.
Chicken wire fences
You will find many products under the broad term of chicken wire fences.
These are designed with a larger gauge compared to hardware cloth.
Animals like weasels and raccoons can easily gnaw their way in through these fences. If you are looking for the best method of protecting your birds, then it is best to opt for a hardware mesh.
You can also use chicken wire fences made of metal or plastic around your gardens and raised garden beds to keep your hens from devouring your crops.
Chicken wire fences can also be used for covering roofless dog houses, kennels, and open-design portable chicken coops.
What to Look for When Buying a Chicken Wire Fence
Size
Measure the area you want to enclose. Then select the wire accordingly.
Make sure that your birds cannot escape from underneath the fence, nor should they be able to fly over the fence.
The same goes for predators; select a size that is resistant to raccoons, weasels, and snakes. A good size is 7 feet by 100 feet.
Most poultry birds cannot fly more than a few feet in the air, so a 7 to 8-foot tall fence should be good enough.
Also, check the size of the wire gauge gaps. If the gap is too large, baby chicks and smaller birds can easily escape through it. So go for fine meshes as far as possible.
Sturdiness and material
The material is one of the most important factors to consider when selecting a chicken wire fence.
Predators should not be able to gnaw through it. Some fences are made using flimsy plastic, and they do not stand a chance against weasels, wild dogs, and even deer antlers.
Rabbits with sharp teeth can also gnaw through and escape from plastic fences. If you are trying to keep cats and dogs from escaping, plastic wires might be completely useless.
Galvanized steel or zinc mesh fences are better in this aspect as they are tougher to gnaw through, sturdier, and difficult to rip apart.
The choice of the material of your chicken wire fence depends entirely on your needs.
If you only wish to keep chickens away from your produce, then go in for a plastic fence. Plastic fences are often UV protected, and that keeps them durable and sturdy for years to come.
Such fences usually last for years as long as there are no animals gnawing through them.
If, however, you are trying to keep rabbits, weasels, deer, or other animals with sharp horns or teeth away from your garden, then it is better to go for galvanized metal (zinc or steel) fences. These are resistant to tears, cuts, and animal teeth. They are also protected from corrosion and rust.
Plastic fences are easier to unroll and install; metal fences get entangled and are difficult to unroll.
In most cases, both types of fences are easy to hook to posts or trees, although some may need additional hardware like zip ties for installation.
Conclusion
Chicken wire fences work in two ways; they protect predators from harming your poultry fowl, and they also prevent your birds from escaping or going where they aren’t supposed to go (like in your garden beds!).
We hope these reviews of chicken wire fences help you make the right selection.
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