Manger Style Hay Feeder

[lupinfarm]

They cost so much, and Luna was just wasting hay left right and centre. I would put it down, and she would roll in it, flatten it, and then wouldn't eat it after because she had rolled her dirty big horse body all over it LOL So I built one of these! ... Last time I looked into buying one, they were running about $400, this cost me under $100 to build.

I still have to add the trough under the manger to catch the chaff, but it has gone into use early because they needed to be hayed tonight. It is about 6ft high (I will make the next one shorter with a wider base), and 4ft long and holds one 60lb hay bale really well.

X-posted to BYH, BYC

 

[FarmerDenise]

That's a great idea! I'll have to tell my friend, who has a horse.

 

[big brown horse]

Thanks for sharing lupin (without the e ) I have to make one of these for my horses, but I'm afraid they will have fun tipping it over as they like to do with their metal troughs. I don't think they would be able to if I had the trough built into it like you said you were going to do. Please post photos when you build the trough too.

Way cool!

Looks good with your fence!

 

[lupinfarm]

BBH, You should make a longer one than mine, and strap it to your fence. They won't be able to tip it, but they will all be able to eat from it if it is longer

The trough not only adds some weight to it, but also catches all the bits that drop out the bottom, like the chaff, and the bits of hay they discard.

 

[big brown horse]

BBH, You should make a longer one than mine, and strap it to your fence. They won't be able to tip it, but they will all be able to eat from it if it is longer

The trough not only adds some weight to it, but also catches all the bits that drop out the bottom, like the chaff, and the bits of hay they discard.

Big Brown liks to tump things over, don't know why, guess it is the boy in him.

I think yours looks amazing and I am going to copy that idea.

 

[patandchickens]

Please be careful, folks -- lupinfarm will doubtless laugh at me Ha Ha, but horses and 2x4 lumber (much less 1x2s) and the associated screws or nails do NOT MIX WELL. I have worked with horses for most of my 44 years and seen looooots of injuries from rigs like that :/

("But my neighbor down the road has been using this for umpty-four years and nothing has ever happened"... look, I'm just giving you a larger sample size from which to learn from OTHER peoples' experiences.)

Even welded metal mangers and hay feeders are a fairly reliable source of injuries (although in some cases they may be the lesser of several evils); wooden ones are even worse.

There are safer ways to reduce hay waste. Rubber mats in a shed is a good start (feeding hay on the [clean] ground is also healthier for horses' eyes and lungs), or there are various other DIY or store-boughten arrangements that are much safer if you really want the hay up at chest level.

Sorry, but, just sayin',

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

Pat, Anything I put in there will be a safety risk. Nothing is safe, as we know, but this is what works for me. I realize it is a bit top heavy, and the next one will be much shorter with a wider base on it so it is less tippable. I don't personally see anything wrong with its safety, and I don't personally see how anything else store bought or DIY could be any safer. Even the big supposedly safe horse feeders are a potential risk to your horse.

Plus, I can't afford any of the "store-boughten" feeders. I can't imagine what you will say when you see my new fencing!

And, regardless of the feeder, it is not the cleanliness I am worried about or concerned with, it is the fact that once on the ground, Luna flattens the hay, and will no longer eat it. We don't have a shed, so that is out of the question.

 

[freemotion]

I have to agree with Pat, for horses....I feed hay only on the ground. I have seen some pretty bad injuries over the years, plus it is the horse's natural way of eating, head down, eating at ground level.

But for goats....their natural way is to browse, so the hay rack is safer....not completely, we all know that animals have a way of finding or creating hazards!

I built a hay rack on the wall with a tray underneath, and the goats like to put their feed in the tray to reach the best bits, then won't eat the stuff in the tray. Then the tray became a launching pad for the babies. I removed it when it looked like Ginger was doing calculations to ricochet off it and get over her stall wall....

I have a big, square free-standing hay rack I built that has solved the bigger danger to a group of goats, which is bonking, which almost killed Ginger recently, thank goodness I was home to save her life. I built the big rack so the girls couldn't see each other while eating if the lowest ranking goat was on the opposite side from the highest ranking goat, which they do arrange! No more major fights at dinner, and all can be in the communal stall even in poor weather, as the little ones can hide behind the rack now, and dash around it if needed.

You could also use cinder blocks to stabilize your hay rack. The goats like to put their front feet on them to reach the hay, too.

eta: for goats, it needs to be high enough that no one will try to jump into it and get caught up between the slats. Or you can put a slanted, hinged roof on to prevent this, something sturdy enough that when they try, they will slide off unharmed.

 

[lupinfarm]

My horse has the choice between the rack and grazing in the field so she does get that "head down" thing.

I want to eventually buy a large feeder I saw at a tack shop, it was like a plastic and kind of looking like a coin pouch, and the bales sat loose inside it. But alas, it is almost $500! which right now I cannot afford. I haven't seen any reason to be concerned about my feeder, and the horses like it. I would rather one that is sunk into the ground and thus immovable, but I don't have the soil.

IMO, Freemotion, I have seen plenty of serious (and one that killed the horse in the end) injuries from electric fencing (a Dutch Warmblood at a boarding facility I boarded at got all caught up in the electric and had to be euthanized) and yet almost every horse owner I know still uses it and adores it. We can't control everything, the feeder works, the horses like it, the hay isn't getting wasted.

 

[Blackbird]

Maybe I just really weak.. but at six feet tall, how do you get a 60lb bale in it??
Flake by flake I suppose.

Wait, how tall are you?