Favorite:
plastic shed
2nd Favorite:
4 x 4 Purina coop
3rd Favorite:
metal shed
Least favorite:
Chicken Hutches and rabbit hutches
I have to bleach my coop out once a year (take precautions not to breathe it in and allow to dry before allowing chickens back in...I do a rinse with water as well).
My metal shed coop rains out condensation all winter...but I find that it is tops for ease of bleaching. I use sand on the floor...just a sprinkle and scrape daily then scoop with kitty litter scoop. Works great.
My plastic shed is warmer and has less condensation from the fog. I like it better (but have no chickens in it currently) for that reason but both sheds require one door open in summer for getting the heat out. When plastic sheds are new they outgas for the first few months...that is an awful phase.
My current favorite coop is a 4 x 4 Purina coop (adaptation of a Purina coop) that I built and is made of wood. It will not be so easily bleachable (mold soaks into wood) but with the sand being 2 inches deep makes for easy daily scooping with no stooping. As far as moisture goes, I haven't seen rainout in there yet as we have been dry for a bit. I do have a light bulb on a thermocube so hopefully will keep a bit dry from that. But with the fog as you know it will be wet.
So if I could do it all over again, I'd not have the metal shed...only the plastic one and the wooden one.
For standing around on cold days indoors, the plastic shed is great shelter for the flock. Also then I am out of the rain when scooping poo out of sand.
I have to use netting overhead with my plastic shed as for some reason the placement of the pop door has invited both an owl and a hawk inside the shed before (they flew away after I opened the door). With the netting overhead there is no problem with this.
I have gone to sand in the nest boxes too (covered kitty litter pans). With the floor of the shed being wet around the edges, I keep the sand scraped away from those wet spots otherwise I am tossing too much sand daily.
