Safe/durable paint for hardware cloth in chicken area?

[BuserSusan]

What paint would you recommend that would be food-safe / chicken-safe to use on hardware cloth wire that will be in a garden and chicken area? Thanks!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Paint won't stay on hardware cloth very long.
Milk paint is always a safe choice.
Why are you painting it?

 

[BuserSusan]

Interested in painting just for looks... Maybe not such a good idea?

 

[aart]

Painting galvanized metal can be tricky.
Have seen several here do it successfully, but can't remember details.
I would not, I hate peeling paint even more than I hate to paint

Try browsing these threads for a viable solution:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/search/52572158/?q=painting+hardware+cloth&t=post&o=relevance&c[title_only]=1

Oh, and, Welcome to BYC @BuserSusan !
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!

 

[Acre4Me]

A spray paint would likely be your best bet since it shouldn't glob up between the squares/rectangles, unless you are heavy handed. Your HWC will be outside, so the paint needs to be pretty durable and made for those temp/weather fluctuations. You can buy a paint sprayer and then use whatever canned paint you like, or buy spray paint.

We used this to spray paint the metal mesh top of a cast iron fire pit. It lasted through a few seasons before we started to see rust. We had also sprayed the outside of the fire pit to help keep the rust at bay, and it also lasted a few seasons (and many fires) before we started to see rust.



This is just one example of a spray paint made to be durable in extreme situations. Some are made to coat engine blocks. Others are made for applications on metal. So, you should be able to find something. Good Luck.

 

[aart]

Seems I remember one of the HC painting successes was rolled on.

Was thinking about this while throwing hopefully the last snow of the season off the driveway...I remember painting galvanized swingset chain years ago and the hardware guy said to use a special paint for galvanized metal and said it would work better if I treated the metal first. I didn't use the treatment but the paint stuck pretty well, tho it did flake off in spots where it was less worn....which was fugly.