Hay feeder advice please

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Jules_F

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Hi,
I am trying to make a hay feeder for the field. I have the cage off an ibc tank and I plan to put a pallet at the bottom and fill with hay. But I am worried about the potential for stuck legs, so I was wondering what I could do to make it safe. I was wondering about chicken wire or some sort of net... Any tips? Thanks :)
 
Oh god, horses are just such a nightmare for this. I had something similar and went down the same line of thinking as you. I went for plastic mesh from a garden centre, fixed on with cable ties. I figured that it could break in an emergency being plastic. It was easy to fix on and not to expensive.

Worked fine, until I found my horse standing IN the feeder with both front legs inside it. nothing was trapped, other than she couldn't lift her legs high enough to climb out again :lol:

I've given up. Hay on the floor or in nets now. Stupid animal!

ETA. a more useful response, if your cage is full height and therefore horse-clambering proof, the plastic mesh was great. It was quite rigid, like chicken wire but plastic, there are loads of types available.
 
I've got one that works quite well, will try to get a photo tomorrow. They have cut my hay bills in half.

It's a solid box with a slanted roof that opens to fill with hay. A rectangular compartment has been cut out one third of the way up and is covered with sack cloth that has three slots in it. I don't like netting, the holes are either too small for the horses to feed from or so large that they can catch a hoof in them.
 
Thank you for your replies. I will look into plastic mesh and try to work out whether the daft beasts could get themselves stuck in the top. Booboos a picture would be great, my other half is pretty handy I may be able to get him to replicate it. Thanks
 
Are you feeding small bales - or large - and for how many horses. If it's small bales - and just a few horses, haynets are probably the easiest, particularly if you have a choice of where to hang them. I feed big bale haylage to my 'mobs' - had been feeeding square bales and just cut a feeding hole in the top. But wanted to change to big round bales as I can get them quite a bit cheaper.

I've had an order for a tombstone feeder in for 4 weeks!! In the meantime, I got a HUGE net designed for big round bales and have put that to work. It's great! (So tombstone feeder order has been cancelled and I've ordered a few more BIG haynets.) Cheaper, easier to move around etc and the horses - so far - haven't ripped huge holes in them. I'll have to remove them a day before they finish - otherwise horses will stomp the nets into the ground (as they stomp the plastic wrappers in now - they can be a PIG to lift.)

Whatever you end up with, ease of movement will be essential - or you'll end up with a quagmore at feeding stations!
 
Sorry this took so long, the kids were sick, then we had 110km/h winds, then I was sick...never ending.

Anyway here is the hay box
Haybox_zpsk9ujk3qb.jpg


We've had them for two years with no accidents but I think it's the kind of thing where you need to know your horse and the kinds of stupidities they are likely to get up to. We tried a version with fish netting which has small, elastic holes (too small to catch a hoof in) but my lot were not managing to get the hay out, then we tried with big haynet holes and pretty quickly one horse got his shoe caught (luckily he was not injured).
 
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