Manger Style Hay Feeder

[lupinfarm]

Hahaha... Blackbird, I am 5'10" and the whole bale goes in in one go. I'm a verrryyy strong person I can carry 3 of those darn bales at a time

 

[Blackbird]

Three 60lb bales at once? Do you have three hands as well?

When I grow a third arm we'll have to compete.

 

[lupinfarm]

Three 60lb bales at once? Do you have three hands as well?

When I grow a third arm we'll have to compete.

Nope, I can hold two in one hand by the binder string, and one in the other. I worked at a large riding facility that serviced over 40 horses, so carrying 3 at once was an asset. I could carry 4 if I wanted, but it hurts my hands LOL

 

[Blackbird]

:/ The strings always slide off on me if I try it that way. I always need to have both strings at a time.

 

[lupinfarm]

I use opposite strings on the bales

 

[Blackbird]

Well I must have an excuse for everything, but the strings on our bales are too tight to be able to do that. Maybe I need to come up for a hay hauling lesson.

 

[lupinfarm]

Hehe, I am here every day most of the day Everyone's hay twine is different, we also use our Lawn tractor and trailer in the summer to haul hay around.

 

[justusnak]

LOVE the hay feeder. I only have 4 sheep...and they too like to roll in the hay I drop on the ground for them....sooo...I took a 55 gallon trash can....mounted it to the wall, and cut "feeder holes" in it. Drop the hay in, put the top back on...and waalaa! A hay feeder, keeps it clean! Of course...it doesnt hold much...but for my 4 sheep, it works.

 

[patandchickens]

this is what works for me.

It hasn't worked for you *yet*, you are just *hoping* it will (edited to clarify: meaning, come back in five years and tell us what's happened), which is why I am saying something *now*. Also, mostly, for others who are reading this thread.

It is not the topheaviness that is the major safety hazard -- it is the fact that it is built of thin lumber with metal fasteners. The moment that a horse pushes against or gets a foot caught in that rig -- and don't think they won't -- it will come apart, and then you have sharp wooden stakes with pointy metal fasteners sticking out for them to poke eyeballs in, impale feet on, and require stitches from.

I don't personally see how anything else store bought or DIY could be any safer.

Anything without weebly thin lumber and detachable metal fasteners (i.e. no screws or nails) is a lot safer, IME. (Around horses, anything smaller than about 4x6, or a large wide 2" plank, is "weebly thin". 4x4s are kinda borderline.)

For DIY, the best arrangement is rubber mats on the ground somewhere it won't blow away or get immediately dragged off, like in a shed (which you will presumably be building eventually even if you don't have it now) or at least behind a windbreak, such as some plywood or feedbags attached to a section of fence on the upwind side of the paddock.

BTW when I say "on clean ground" I was not meaning to imply your concern was cleanliness per se -- the reason one should only feed hay on clean ground, when possible, is because it greatly reduces wastage and worm egg acquisition. So normally I would only advocate feeding on clean ground, you know?

If for whatever reason you *must* feed hay up off the ground, a very good arrangement is to get one or several of those big blue barrels, which can quite often be scored for free or if not that then you can get them real cheap if you ask around. Then they can be cut with a reciprocating saw (or etc) either equatorially or lengthwise to make a nice plastic 'tub'. Drill drainage holes and smooth the sawn edges, and affix it to the fence/shed/tree/whatever for a pretty effective and safe hay manger. Backing it with plywood or etc, a la windbreak discussed above, improves hay retention but is not absolutely necessary.

Usually if horses are trampling their hay in summertime, in a grassy paddock, it means they did not really need it, so make sure you even have to *be* feeding hay. If you're hoping to make the grass last longer, I have to say that feeding hay in a still-grassy paddock just does not normally have that result (logical tho it seems) -- it just gives you accellerated local damage to large areas of grass *and* wastes hay, as you are apparently seeing. Subdividing the paddock (if it is large enough) with electric fencing, which can be done very very cheaply, for rotation, works a lot better to extend the life of a limited pasture.

I am not trying to pick on you, lupinfarm, I am trying to *help*, and most of all I am hoping to discourage other people from building gratuitously dangerous things (however well-meant) in their horse paddocks when much much safer alternatives exist.

Obviously if people want to do unnecessarily dangerous and foolish things with their animals, it is a free country (either of 'em), but I have seen enough horses etc in pain, or crippled, or put down, from causes that could quite reasonably have been foreseen and easily AVOIDED that I just feel like I have to say something. Beyond that it is up to the individual horse owner.

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

I wasn't really asking for a safety debate when I posted this, I was just showing it off. I personally can't be bothered with this anymore, I'm abandonning my thread.