Christmas present advice please - my mom needs a new manure rake.

[Big Daddy]

Wish I could help you, but I can't. We doo D) the deep-bed method around here (read: lazy!) and just shovel it all out in spring. It composts with scraps and straw all winter.

But, you gotta love a woman who want a manure rake for Christmas!

That's what we do too. 3 horses make a lot of manure. Then they pee in it and it snows on it. Come spring I call my buddy with the Bobcat and he scoops it all out for 200.00 and piles it in the neighbors yard. I always have a bunch of other stuff he does too.

 

[hwillm1977]

I do chores at a boarding barn (so that I can afford to keep my horse there... lol) and use a plastic one to clean 37 box stalls and 8 straight stalls. I have a heavy duty one with built up sides and I LOVE it...

We got it at the local farm supply store (Co-op Country Store), so I guess that doesn't help you much... but taken care of the plastic ones do last... I've had this one for 3 years now, and it's moved TONS of poop

 

[Big Daddy]

I do chores at a boarding barn (so that I can afford to keep my horse there... lol) and use a plastic one to clean 37 box stalls and 8 straight stalls. I have a heavy duty one with built up sides and I LOVE it...

We got it at the local farm supply store (Co-op Country Store), so I guess that doesn't help you much... but taken care of the plastic ones do last... I've had this one for 3 years now, and it's moved TONS of poop

Sounds like a poopy job to me.

 

[tamlynn]

Come spring I call my buddy with the Bobcat and he scoops it all out for 200.00 and piles it in the neighbors yard.

That's one way to tell your neighbors how you feel about them.

Thanks for the input everyone, my mom was around before plastic tools became commonplace, so I think she has that durablilty in mind.

 

[Beekissed]

But, you gotta love a woman who want a manure rake for Christmas!

Folks were making fun of me one year because my trailer broke down as I was hauling a load of manure to my mother for Mother's Day. I told them, very huffily, that half that load was MY Mother's Day present!



Yep.....women who play with poo are a breed apart!

 

[FarmerChick]

I use metal everything.

I had a few plastic farm tools, and I hate them. They do not stand up to hard work at all.......broken plastic tines, you are DONE---bent tine for metal you can use that thing for another 50 years..LOL

Plastic and cold are not good. Snap
Plastic and sun are not good. Dry rot and snap


Metal for me all the time.

Remeber being SS you gotta go for long term usage...LOL...and in hard times a metal fork can become a great weapon if you got to defend youself. I don't think the plastic would be good for that..HAHA



But I would search for one before shipping one...wouldn't shipping on that thing cost alot? I don't know.

 

[Wildsky]

We've used a plastic pooper scooper for the horse and goat barn for 2 years now and its still going strong, my hubby said he'd like a different one, that can scoop or hold more, but we're still ok with this one. (hubby scoops the poop around here while I fill water buckets)

We have to deal with frozen poop as well, and the scooper has done well, even trying to chip the poop off the frozen ground and we haven't broken it yet!

 

[miss_thenorth]

We've used a plastic pooper scooper for the horse and goat barn for 2 years now and its still going strong, my hubby said he'd like a different one, that can scoop or hold more, but we're still ok with this one. (hubby scoops the poop around here while I fill water buckets)

We have to deal with frozen poop as well, and the scooper has done well, even trying to chip the poop off the frozen ground and we haven't broken it yet!

Ditto. I use my steel toe boots to kick at stubborn clumps of poo, this seems to work ok.

For those who deep litter-do you use shavings are straw? We used straw last year, and deep littered it, but the year before and this year we are using shavings. the one year I deep littered shavings in the chicken coop, and it was a disgusting mess come spring. When I used straw, the deep litter was beautiful.

 

[Wildsky]

We've used a plastic pooper scooper for the horse and goat barn for 2 years now and its still going strong, my hubby said he'd like a different one, that can scoop or hold more, but we're still ok with this one. (hubby scoops the poop around here while I fill water buckets)

We have to deal with frozen poop as well, and the scooper has done well, even trying to chip the poop off the frozen ground and we haven't broken it yet!

Ditto. I use my steel toe boots to kick at stubborn clumps of poo, this seems to work ok.

For those who deep litter-do you use shavings are straw? We used straw last year, and deep littered it, but the year before and this year we are using shavings. the one year I deep littered shavings in the chicken coop, and it was a disgusting mess come spring. When I used straw, the deep litter was beautiful.

I use shavings in the coop, the coop has a dirt floor and so far so good, we don't really have access to straw here - I did use some hay last year, I put a couple of bales still tied up in the coop on the north west corner to help a little with the cold. (the chickens started to lay their eggs there
I took those bales out in Spring, they were so dusty and nasty - I was going to just spread the hay out on the floor, but the dust was really bad!

 

[ksalvagno]

The rake that I love to use is Ames True Temper Real Tools For Kids Poly Leaf Rake With 42-Inch Handle. They are perfect for raking up goat and alpaca beans.


http://www.amazon.com/Ames-True-Tem...e=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1259945437&sr=8-7