Hexagonal Wire Mesh (Chicken Netting): Galvanising Classes and Agricultural Applications

Hexagonal wire mesh — most farmers and dealers know it as chicken netting — is the fastest way to enclose poultry, shut rabbits out of a market garden, or face a gate frame with something a fox cannot squeeze through. It is a twisted-wire product: each wire is reverse-twisted around its neighbours, so the mesh holds its hexagonal shape without a single weld. That construction keeps it flexible enough to roll, cut and shape on site, and keeps its cost per square metre below welded or knotted alternatives.

DB Fencing has produced and traded wire mesh from Anping County, Hebei — the district known as the world’s wire mesh town — since 2009, backed by 14 years of export experience. This article covers what a buyer of hexagonal wire mesh actually needs to decide: how galvanising classes differ, which agricultural jobs the mesh does well and which it does badly, and the commercial terms worth confirming before you place an order.

What Is Hexagonal Wire Mesh?

Hexagonal wire mesh is woven on twisting machines that spiral each wire around the next, locking the strands into a honeycomb pattern. No welding, no knots — just the twist holding the geometry. The material ships in compact rolls, conforms to curved ground and round frames, and can be cut with hand pliers without unravelling beyond the cut point.

Trade names vary by market: chicken netting and poultry mesh in Australia and New Zealand, hexagonal wire netting in many European price lists. It is the same product family, and it sits within DB Fencing’s woven mesh range alongside fixed knot deer fencing and hinge joint farm mesh (Veldspan) — so a dealer can consolidate several mesh types in one container instead of splitting orders across suppliers.

Wire diameter, aperture size and roll dimensions drive both price and fitness for purpose — a mesh fine enough to stop day-old chicks differs from one built to deter foxes. Those parameters are quoted per order, so treat any generic specification table you find online as a starting point and confirm the exact configuration with the factory.

Galvanising Classes: What the Zinc Coating Actually Tells You

“Galvanised” on a quotation tells you almost nothing on its own. Zinc coatings are specified per product line, and the spread inside one factory is wider than most buyers expect. DB Fencing specifies hot-dip galvanising above 42 microns (a micron is one thousandth of a millimetre) on its temporary fencing and outdoor fence line, built for harsh outdoor and coastal exposure. Its Australian-spec cattle panel line runs 18–28 microns. Same factory, same base steel, different coating targets — because duty, market and price point differ.

The same logic applies to hexagonal wire mesh. The meaningful distinctions for a buyer are these:

• Electro-galvanised (zinc-plated): a thin, bright coating applied before weaving. Cheapest on the invoice, and the first to show rust once the zinc is spent. Suits dry climates, indoor housing and short-cycle uses.
• Hot-dip galvanised: the wire passes through molten zinc, leaving a genuinely heavier coating than electro-galvanising. The dull grey finish weathers far longer outdoors, and it is the sensible floor specification for anything facing rain, animal waste or salt air.
• PVC-coated over galvanised wire: a polymer skin in green or black over a zinc-coated core. The coating buys UV and corrosion resistance plus a less visible fence, at a higher price. Check that the underlying wire is galvanised, not bare.

Take a position on this early: if the mesh is going anywhere near coastal New Zealand or salt-laden Australian air, buy hot-dip and skip the electro-galvanised option. The thin coating is cheaper at purchase and more expensive on the replacement cycle, and replacement labour costs more than the mesh. The differences between hot-dip and pre-galvanised steel, including why the 42-micron threshold matters for outdoor fence lines, are covered in this comparison of hot-dip and pre-galvanised fence steel.

Never accept a spec sheet that says only “galvanised”. Ask for the zinc coating mass or thickness in writing, then match it to the environment the mesh will live in.

Agricultural Applications (and Where the Mesh Fails)

Poultry is the anchor application, and the reason for the “chicken netting” name. The mesh forms walls and roofs for runs, brooder enclosures and breeding pens. Against foxes and dogs, fold a skirt of mesh outward along the ground and pin it down — a digging predator hits the horizontal skirt instead of the fence line, and the classic weak point of a poultry run disappears.

Beyond the chook pen, the same roll earns its keep across the farm:

• Garden and orchard exclusion: rabbit and hare fencing around market gardens, vineyards and young plantations, at low cost per metre.
• Tree and plant guards: cylinders of hex mesh around saplings stop rabbits ring-barking the trunk while leaving the tree visible and ventilated.
• Small-animal housing: rabbit hutches and aviaries, where the material is light enough for timber framing yet resistant to gnawing.
• Civil and landcare uses: rock-filled gabion baskets for erosion control use a heavier hexagonal weave — a different grade from poultry mesh, so quote it as a separate line item.

Now the honest limit: hex mesh does not hold cattle, sheep or goats. A rubbing bull tears light twisted wire open within weeks, and a failed paddock fence means stock on a road. For stock pressure, the woven-mesh answer is hinge joint (Veldspan) for sheep and general paddock work, or fixed knot deer fencing where larger animals and taller fence lines are involved. A good supplier will tell you so before shipping.

Choosing Between Hex, Knotted and Woven Farm Mesh

Dealers rarely buy one mesh type — they buy a range, and the range has to divide cleanly by animal and duty. The table below maps the woven-mesh family to the jobs each member does best, using the product lines DB Fencing manufactures in Anping.

The buying logic is simple: match the mesh to the largest animal the fence must control, then to the environment, then to the budget. Getting the order wrong at the first step cannot be fixed at the third.

Sourcing Hexagonal Wire Mesh from China: Terms and Lead Times

Anping County concentrates wire-mesh weaving, galvanising and trading in one place, which is why a single supplier there can consolidate a mixed fencing programme. DB Fencing operates 10 welding production lines with capacity up to 2,000 sets per week on its panel products, and was founded in 2009 and brings 14 years of export experience, with Australia and New Zealand taking roughly three-quarters of its business. That AU/NZ weighting matters to local dealers: the factory already understands Pacific shipping cycles and Australian requirements, including AS 4687-2022 and AS 4687-2007 compliance on its temporary fencing line.

On commercial terms, the factory keeps the entry barrier deliberately low:

• Order quantity: 100 panels is the entry point on panel lines — a low minimum for trialling quality before committing to volume. Hexagonal mesh ships in rolls, so confirm roll quantities, packing configuration and container mix with the sales team when you request a quote.
• Speed: quotations come back within 24 hours. Stock items dispatch within 7 days; bulk production runs 20–25 days.
• Trade terms: FOB, CIF, CFR, DDU and DDP are all available, so you can shift landed-cost responsibility to whichever party is best placed to carry it.
• Payment: flexible and negotiable, agreed per order rather than imposed as a fixed structure.
• Assurance: the factory is ISO9001 certified and SGS audited — ask for the current audit documentation as part of your supplier file.

The mechanics of vetting a Chinese fence supplier, requesting samples and structuring payments follow the same process for mesh rolls as for panels. The step-by-step version is in this guide to buying fencing from China, and the checks transfer directly to hexagonal wire mesh orders.

Quality Checks Before You Order

Three checks catch most hex-mesh quality problems before they reach your warehouse. First, get the zinc coating specification written into the proforma invoice — coating class, test method and who certifies it — not into an email chain. Second, order a sample roll before the deposit and test the twist tightness by hand: poorly twisted mesh opens when cut and sags on the fence line. Third, on production orders, request an inspection report with photos before the balance payment, covering roll length, mesh uniformity and coating appearance.

If you are qualifying a new supplier rather than reordering from a known one, a structured audit pays for itself on the first container. The questions worth asking an Anping factory — from business licence verification to production-line condition — are listed in this fence factory audit checklist.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Hexagonal wire mesh earns its place in an agricultural range because it does the small-animal jobs — poultry, rabbits, gardens, tree guards — at a cost heavier meshes cannot match, provided the coating class matches the environment and the mesh never gets asked to hold stock it was never built for. The zinc specification is the single variable that decides whether a roll lasts one season or many, and it is the one most often left vague on a quotation.

Before your next order, write the coating class into the paperwork, test a sample roll for twist tightness, and confirm roll quantities and lead times with the supplier. A factory that answers those three questions within its 24-hour quotation window is one you can build a range on.