Chicken wire - Definition and Overview

Chicken wire is a mesh of wire, generally used for fence making. Typically it would be of thin, flexible galvanized wire, with hexagonal gaps of 1 inch (about 2.5 cm) diameter.

Apart from fences, chicken wire is sometimes used to make dummies. Pyschologist Harry Harlow used chicken wire to create "surrogate mothers" for rhesus monkeys. In experiments, the wire "mothers" tended to inspire less affection than cloth "mothers" despite being equipped with "nipples" supplying milk.

In chemistry, molecules with linked carbon rings are often compared to chicken wire. See Chicken wire (chemistry).