Homemade outdoor hay feeder.

This works perfectly for me, even better it is subsidised to buy from the council! It is cable tied to the fence post in several places. One advantage is it is top loading but horse eats from the bottom so no waste, they eat the older stuff first, and the hay keeps dry. Very useful for my lami girl.

 
I read the other thread that Faracat posted a link to, and I wonder what happened to Queenbee's hay hutch? I think that they look nice http://www.hay-hutch.com/?oo=0 .

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Found another HHO thread where e.g. YasandCrystal posted photos of wheelie bins used as hay feeders http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?567252-feeding-hay-in-the-field

Other examples of wheelie bins as hay feeders found through Google image search

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Some more images of other homemade hay feeders that I found

Link to big photo of a round plastic barrel made into a hay feeder http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qd0JqbIWZmU/S__8fhu-qZI/AAAAAAAAANg/iFKDRcZW8VQ/s1600/IMG_0951.JPG

Scroll down to post 114 for photos of how they've attached the grid to the barrel in the photo below http://forums.horsecity.com/index.php?showtopic=47025800&page=4
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Something similar to above, except that they've used a piece of a rubber doormat as grid
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Link to big photo of a feed bin with net at the bottom tied to a post http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x192/mymacai/DSC02088.jpg

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Link to big photo of what looks like a modified version of what Tuonodeb posted a link to http://ferrellhollowfarm.typepad.com/.a/6a01156fa5b26f970c0115712dba6f970b-800wi

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Not quite homemade, but the rack from where the nibble net is hanging is homemade
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We got some used back wheel tractor tyres from the next door farm. They are large & deep enough that you can fill the middle & it doesn't blow about the field. They can be moved (car or friends helpful) about field, & being rubber they've never been damaged or hurt the neds no matter how many times they get jumped on.
 
Quite s lot of ideas here now, thank you all.

I love the idea of the plastic storage box with the haynet over. Its a good place to start until I can sort out something bigger.

Thanks
 
Can horses eat from sheep/cattle hayfeeders ? We've got one out for the sheep and pony will be out with them this winter !
 
Here's a tyre feeder. The two tyres have had their inner metal rims sawed out, and are bolted to each other and onto a pallet with a total of 8 coach bolts. Total cost: the price of the coach bolts.

The hay bale in it is 3' diameter, and is contained in a really really big small-hole hay-net (I think these are called "Texas haynets"?).

For safety, you can make holes around the tyre to which you can anchor the haynet, if you use one.

While those pictures of horses stuck in tyres are very alarming (and I hope the horses were extracted safely!), I think having two tyres on top of each other, and the metal rims removed, would increase the safety. I suspect a really determined horse would also find a way to get stuck in a sheep feeder or a tombstone feeder.

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Finnish Lapphund, The 12th photo, in your very helpful and informative post, is the one we made. We actually made 2 and don't know how we've survived without them! The gridwall we used never shifts or gets stuck. It can't be lifted out while the donkeys are eating, because of the hinged rim around the top of the feeder. There is NO waste, I mean none whatsoever. Even the ring feeders, wheelie bin feeders, feeders where the horses pull at the hay through vertical mesh, and hay hutches, all have a degree of waste. The feeders pictured in your 13th and 14th photos utilise a grid, but I can't see how those grids are secured.
 
HaffiesRock said:
So my thinking is. Build a box out of deckboards roughly the size of a hay bale, and then buy a grid to go on top that is slightly smaller than the box so it moves down with the hay?

Sounds simple enough... *runs to OH waving my arms with my plan for him to build*
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Exactly!! It works a treat! The grid must have a bit of weight, that's why we use gridwall. If you go to eBay and search for Gridwall, you should find no end of choices. They come in 2 feet widths, and lengths of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 feet. The openings are 3 inches square. When I showed one of my vets our two feeders, she waxed poetic about them. She said they are like rigid horizontal haynets. Go for it!
 
RutlandH2O said:
Finnish Lapphund, The 12th photo, in your very helpful and informative post, is the one we made. We actually made 2 and don't know how we've survived without them! The gridwall we used never shifts or gets stuck. It can't be lifted out while the donkeys are eating, because of the hinged rim around the top of the feeder. There is NO waste, I mean none whatsoever. Even the ring feeders, wheelie bin feeders, feeders where the horses pull at the hay through vertical mesh, and hay hutches, all have a degree of waste. The feeders pictured in your 13th and 14th photos utilise a grid, but I can't see how those grids are secured.
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Glad you liked my post :o , but to be honest, I don't know if the grid is secured in any way in the 14th photo. On the hay feeder in the 13th photo, they've attached a wooden frame to the grid and I presumed that it is supposed to make the grid heavy enough for the horses to not lift it up with their teeth and remove it. I did a new image search and found this similar, smaller version of the hay feeder in the 13th photo, but where the grid with its wooden frame is more visible
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And a similar grid with wooden frame being made
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In the new search I also found some other photos, like this grid solution, but unless it is attached somehow, it looks, to me, like something a horse could lift up and remove themselves?
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A hay feeder with an opening towards the top, where you can slid the grid in/out when you fill it up with hay
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I used a big compost bin at my last yard, secured to fence posts. Worked really well. This winter I have a proper round feeder, on the hard standing, very spoilt now! Lol
 
"That's why I use bungee cord in my feeders, it goes down though the mesh and stops them pulling the lid off."I would never use a bungee with horses - imagine the possibilites for split lips or eyes if it twanged off! Bet Faracat can show us come horro pics!A good friend of mine made me a wooden haybox about 1 metre long and 30 high and 20 deep. I have only used it indoors so far because the wood isnt treated. Holds enough for one very greedy horse overnight easily. Think I might investigate the wheelie bin idea for the fields - can you smooth the cut edges with sandpaper?
 
coffeeandabagel said:
"That's why I use bungee cord in my feeders, it goes down though the mesh and stops them pulling the lid off."I would never use a bungee with horses - imagine the possibilites for split lips or eyes if it twanged off! Bet Faracat can show us come horro pics!A good friend of mine made me a wooden haybox about 1 metre long and 30 high and 20 deep. I have only used it indoors so far because the wood isnt treated. Holds enough for one very greedy horse overnight easily. Think I might investigate the wheelie bin idea for the fields - can you smooth the cut edges with sandpaper?
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Yes, you can smooth the sharp plastic cut edges - we used a round file actually. The feeder does slow them down - they have to reach in to get the hay after the initial munch and I get little wastage.

I agree re bungees - a friend lost an eye after one twanged into her eye directly - they were fastening down hay - poor lady.
 
hay hutch?!


i bought one last year was expensive but brilliant.... they do not roll away (can roll as my youngster battered it but it is literally bombproof).....

fit a whole bale in (i had a medium one)... was ace :)
 
I've got the links for the steksinoly slow feeder: http://youtu.be/kL0o_N_W_w8 and http://youtu.be/zvG1pokZPms. We raised ours about 8 inches off the floor and we put mesh bottoms in the feeders so that dust and seeds fall out and can be swept away.

Just a note about the gridwall: it is heavy (not so heavy as to make it unmanageable) and lays on the hay securely. The donkeys (horses) could lift it while pulling out a wad of forage through the 3 inch openings. The grid weight, and the hinged lid with the overhang all the way around the feeder, prevents the grid from being dislodged. It really is a very simple, convenient, efficient, robust method of feeding hay/forage.
 
We use the building site mortar tubs, the ones they lift with a fork lift truck. Because they are made from heavy duty plastic it doesn't fracture and split to leave sharp ends and they are heavy enough not to be knocked over. In summer they are great water troughs and are just the right size for a small bale of hay in winter. We got ours for free from a large building site when they had almost finished and were tidying up. It needed a good scrub clean but has done five years now with no maintenance or breakages.
 
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