How to Attach Chicken Wire to Posts
When you want to keep small animals in your yard or out of your garden, or just want a quick trellis for vining plants, chicken wire is an effective solution. Because chicken wire is inexpensive and easy to carry and manipulate, anyone with even minimal DIY skills can attach it to wooden or metal T-posts. Depending on the posts you choose and any framing, your chicken wire structure can be either temporary or a more permanent addition to your yard.
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Dig a 6- to 12-inch-deep trench between your posts with a shovel if your goal is to keep digging animal pests out with your chicken wire structure.
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Put on work gloves. The ends of the wires are sharp.
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Line the roll of chicken wire up with a corner post, if there is one, so the bottom 6 to 12 inches can slip into the trench and so the top horizontal wire is in line with a tab on a metal T-post, if you are using one. A T-post has a T-shaped profile with upright tabs along its length along what would be the base of the "T." They also have fins about a foot from their bottom end that you can step on to more easily insert the post into the ground to stabilize it.
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Unroll the chicken wire a few inches and slip the horizontal wires along the first or second column of chicken wire cells into the tabs on a metal T-post and pinch them closed with pliers -- or staple across each horizontal wire down the first column of cells to fasten the wire to a wooden post.
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Unroll the chicken wire and stretch it to the second post. Ensure that the wire is taut and level.
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Hook or staple the wire to the post in the same manner as in Step 4, though you could staple every few horizontal wires, instead of every wire. Continue to wrap and fasten the chicken wire until you get to your last post.
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Cut the chicken wire with wire cutters evenly down the edge a few inches beyond your last set of tab fasteners or staples.
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Refill the trench to stabilize the bottom of the wire.
Shovel (optional)
Work gloves
Wire cutters
Pliers
Heavy-duty staples
Staple gun
Baling wire (optional)
Things You Will Need
Tip
To add stability to a chicken wire panel stapled to a wooden post, nail a length of one-by-two lumber over the line of staples from the top of the chicken wire panel to where the post enters the ground. Fasten it to the post with galvinized nails or wood screws of the appropriate size.
Cut lengths of baling wire and wrap them around the metal T-posts and through the chicken wire and twist the ends together to add stability to chicken wire hooked to a metal post.
References
Writer Bio
Patricia Hamilton Reed has written professionally since 1987. Reed was editor of the "Grand Ledge Independent" weekly newspaper and a Capitol Hill reporter for the national newsletter "Corporate & Foundation Grants Alert." She has a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Michigan State University, is an avid gardener and volunteers at her local botanical garden.