[eneville]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I hadn't considered rust to be an issue. So if we go ahead with this then I'll be giving the metal work a good paint before hand.

The main issue I have at the moment is that the wooden coop can rot, so I wanted something a bit more permanent, hence a metal design. Plastic would be good to, but I don't think it would weather the sunlight or take the weight of snow on a roof so well.

Some main thoughts were to:

- keep mice/rats out
- stop the chickens from digging out
- take the punishment of seasons
- allow for humans to enter/exit
- easy to hosed down
- last 10-ish years
- be able to contain "hospital" cages when needed without complete separation
- contain a hen house for roosting/laying

griff:

I like your setup, do you remove food and water at night?

[griff]

I take the food feeder out at night and put it in a metal dustbin until morning, the water container stays put