Let me start by saying that I have the best husband. He has embraced country life with enthusiasm. Which is great because there are often puzzles to solve when owning a farm.
One such puzzle involves feeding hay. I hate feeding hay on the ground. Horses make a big mess of it and then won't eat it. It's wasteful and difficult to clean up.
Enter the hay box:
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| Steele eating from the hay box that Ed made. |
That worked okay but they pulled the hay out and made a mess. Then when we got a lot of snow it would be buried. That caused some concern with me that a horse might get injured. After the winter of 2015 we ditched it and started again.
The next attempt was the slow feed hay net suspended between two posts:
That saved a ton on hay wastage and made clean up easy. That worked great for the winter and then in the spring the horses broke one of the posts which led to safety issues. Then they did it again the next spring.
Back to the drawing board. Obviously more study was required.
One day this summer I walked into the garage to see Ed building something.
What are you making?
This is a garden box for Andy's wife. She wanted one and I said I could build it.
Hmm.
I circled around it with my mind whirling. I realized that with some modifications this could be the answer I was looking for.
We talked about it and Ed came up with this:
It's an elevated hay box. It's large enough to fit a full bale (or more). The hinge makes it easy to lift the hay in. The legs are black because they are painted with some stuff that rubberizes them to keep them from rotting. The whole thing is made out of hemlock which is a great wood for outside. But the hay doesn't sit there waiting for the horses to drag it out and make a mess. We purchased a slow feed hay net that is suspended between the two arms.
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| Carmen modelling. Also, not impressed with how the net is slowing her down. |
I told Ed that he could sell these if he wanted. I think he was intrigued with that idea. I will be his agent of course.
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| (I find him both) |
Ok, I died laughing at the RedGreen meme lol!
ReplyDeleteLove the new hay box!! I have something kind of similar, but it fits an entire round bale and I pull a slow feed hay net over the bale. The sides are about 3ft high so they can't stick their legs in/paw at the hay. It works SO well and I don't have any issues with hay wasteage either! Glad you found something that works for you and is equally beautiful to look at!
I’ve seen these solutions for round bales. They are great and way better than a horse eating his way to the middle.
DeleteThis is a great idea! When I own my own property I’d totally buy one :)
ReplyDeleteOwning your own property is great. And a lot of work. But still great.
DeleteHorse hubbys are worth their weight - that's a lovely rig!
ReplyDeleteI did something similar with one of these - a basketball hoop hay feeder - stationed over a heavy trough that I screwed into the wall to stabilize. Hay waste is minimal now and the pig I mean pony has hay in front of him all the time.
I have thought about that for Carmen’s stall. Not sure if I will yet.
DeleteLooks really good! A barn my horses were in training at uses plastic barrels - cuts the tops and bottoms off, hangs the barrel up fairly high, attaches a hay net to the bottom and throws the hay in the top.
ReplyDeleteI’ve seen that here using the large round bins. I thought about it because it would be easy but didn’t want to put holes in the siding.
DeleteLove those handy husbands! In the 8 years we've been at our property, we have cycled through quite a few different ways to feed hay, haha. I really like this concept though, and think you could definitely sell some to like-minded horse people! Great job Ed!
ReplyDeleteWe shall see the proof of concept this year. I have said that I will fund my retirement by renting out Ed!
DeleteI have threatened to fund my present horse habit by renting out Myles! 😂 Or cloning him and selling the clone lol
DeleteThat is a great idea! I have been wanting to build one of these (http://www.grazingbox.com/howitworks.htm) and even went so far as to buy one of their grates, but I haven't done it yet. And the Red Green meme is awesome! Hahaha love that show!
ReplyDeleteThat’s where we started. I stopped using the grate because of our cold winters. I was worried one of the horses might get their lips or tongue stuck to the metal. And then it was buried in snow.
DeleteI've heard that those metal grates will wear horses teeth down too, not sure I want that but I think they are cool.
DeleteGreat solution. And good looking too (the box). Handy husbands are a godsend.
ReplyDeleteThey really are.
DeleteI only feed from nets to reduce waste, I don't care about slowing the animals down (but I do think it reduces dust inhaled, even though I've read the opposite is true). The ultimate solution in my mind is to have a net above a trough, because they will waste even with a net. So if I could have a trough under I could shove the droppings back in the net every day. And t hat is what I've got - a corner trough in a stall with a net hanging high above it (so their eyes are above the wall of the trough, so they can see while eating). Your solution is awesome, same concepts of minimizing waste. Better than mine, cuz yours has spaces between the wood so the smallest particles can fall through.
ReplyDeleteI thought about a trough but then the rain would accumulate and I’d have to empty out the snow. With this, the dust falls down as they pull. Irish doesn’t need to be slowed but Carmen sure does!
Deletehttp://farmandstables.com/project/slow-feed-hay-box/
ReplyDeleteThat’s is where we started.
DeleteOh! That looks nice! We are contemplating what to do if we move. Currently we are wasting so much by ground feeding. A friends horse destroyed it teeth on the metal gratings used in slow feeders, so I can’t bring my self to ever use that.
ReplyDeleteYeah- I was worried about the metal on their teeth.
DeleteGreat idea! Looks like it will keep things neat and easy to manage. And the plus is the nets really slow down the little piggies.
ReplyDeleteThe slow feed actually help Irish to eat more (which is good) and Carmen to slow down (also good).
DeleteHandy husbands are the best. Mine is too, but much lacking in the enthusiasm. Farming is hard for a city boy, yo. lol! Luckily, I'm just as handy AND have enthusiasm so city boy can keep his fingernails clean. :)
ReplyDeleteI do like being able to do my own repairs but fortunately Ed loves to build things. :D
Deleteclever clever!! gotta love that handy diy attitude too! if i have figured out anything from working at a couple different farms, it's that hay solutions are shockingly unique to each individual farm. like there are some commonalities that seem to work well (nets. nets seem to work haha), but really each place operates slightly differently and that makes a surprisingly big impact on the right solution. glad you guys have found something that works for you!
ReplyDeleteI am all about finding a cheaper way to do things. :) The nets are good until they start to unravel/break and then repairing them is a pain. I do like the smaller slow feed nets for shows/clinics. It helps keep Carmen occupied.
DeleteAwesome idea and it looks really well constructed. Our horses aren't slowed down by those nets anymore though; we had to go to the super tiny hole nets.
ReplyDeleteEd always builds things solid. I originally had 2" net. This is 1.5. I don't think Irish could cope with a 1"
DeleteI love handy husbands! Mine is handy as well and it is the best. Great job on the slow feeder. I loved feeding out of nets in MI, so little waste. Mine were tied to the arena posts or trees, this is a great solution when neither of those are available. Good job!
ReplyDeleteYeah the post thing didn't work out and no trees in the fields.
DeleteOk, this is genius!! I'm going to show it to Mike. We currently put hay on the ground in the summer, but I struggle for a winter solution. We've tried metal troughs and hay nets and currently have them eating off of rubber mats in the alleyway (which JR takes as an invitation to pee on the hay... much to my delight, as you can imagine). This might be the solution we're looking for!!!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you like it. It's so hard to find the best solution for hay feeding.
DeleteHaha Red Green!
ReplyDeleteWe use a round bale in a cattle feeder which works well in the summer, in the spring mud its not as good they don't clean up the ground like in winter. I have a net but haven't used it cause I'm not as worried about a little fat in the winter and I don't feed hay in the summer much.
The cattle feeder sounds like a great solution.
DeleteWhat an awesome feeder - I really like how you can put an entire bale out because that would mean Mr Shoes & I could go away together for a day and not worry about getting home to feed.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally pinning this - I hope that's okay?
Of course it's okay. And being able to put an entire bale is great.
DeleteI looove this idea!!
ReplyDeleteLove the combination of the two ideas!
ReplyDelete