We have two approximately 25’ long cattle panel hoop coops and have had them for several years. Actually, one coop is 16 ‘ long with three 4’ x 8’ portable coops on one end. The small coops each have a door, and we use them as grow out pens or to pen our turkey hens when they are laying. We can keep poultry in a small section or open doors to give them more room. We like them. We cover part of the coops with a tarp to keep rain and snow off and shade cloth over the rest for summer weather. I go out with a push broom to remove snow. Last winter when I wasn’t feeling well the snow built up & did collapse one coop. Fortunately, we were using that hoop coop for storage at the time. We considered replacing the cattle panels, but decided to shore them back up with a few 2 x 4’s down the center. Since we have part of our flock free ranging, I covered that hoop house with bird netting and am using it for my garden — safe from poultry. Cons? As I said, snow must be swept off, the tarps have to be replaced fairly often. We tie the tarps down with zip ties. My husband used some wire ties when repairing the collapsed coop. I am fairly tall & the first thing I did was walk in & catch my hair in a wire tie. Not happy!! Also, I have used 1/4” hardware cloth along the lower part to keep chicks from escaping, and the floor of the coops is chain link fencing. The chain link keeps critters from burrowing into the coop.
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