Yesterday I did some smaller homestead projects, including building a shelf above the door in the new chicken coop, and repairing a gate pole of the old chicken run.

Since getting supplies for the ducklings in early May, the storage area of the new chicken coop has been a bit crowded:

The coop has a fairly high ceiling, so I decided to utilize that vertical room by adding a shelf in the empty space above the door:

The shelf is simply a bit of OSB, cut to fit the space (25×48″), with notches to fit around the studs, supported on the existing 2x4s of the walls on two sides, with a new one across the front:

Here’s a view from outside, showing the underside of the shelf, a block to support the new support 2×4 on the left, and another block on the right (that one isn’t needed for support, but attaches the support to the wall). You can also see a similar existing shelf at the back of the coop:

A fun glimpse of the chandelier in the coop:

A view of the shelf from inside:

The shelf is now a “hay loft” — actually straw storage (fun fact: straw and hay are different: straw is a waste product of grain crops like wheat, used for bedding and mulch, whereas hay is feed for horses and cattle):

Straw is messy stuff; I got a bunch in my beard (this was after brushing off some):

Next up, I did a repair of the old chicken run. Once upon a time, I used to hook Rory’s leash on the pole next to the run gate while I went into the coops to collect eggs. Well, one day she saw something exciting (probably a rabbit) and pulled on it, snapping the post off at the ground (it was probably weakened from rotting anyway). So for several months it has been propped up by a couple of concrete blocks. (I now have a metal post in the ground to hitch her leach to during rounds.)

Yesterday I finally got around to repairing it. I considered replacing the post, but it used to be embedded in a big chunk of concrete, which I couldn’t be bothered digging out:

So as a slightly hacky solution I attached some recycled boards at the top and bottom between the post and the coop, which that fence should have had anyway. Here the bottom one is attached, and the top one is resting on the top of the post and being held by clamps on the coop end:

A view from inside the run:

Both boards attached:

This isn’t an ideal repair, but it’s sturdy enough.