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Author Topic: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design  (Read 15195 times)

Graemscifi

  • Joined Nov 2013
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #15 on: December 21, 2014, 03:50:24 pm »
admiring your thrift and recycling skills, but more so your lovely sheepies. brilliant! are they manx or castlemilk or other? whatever they are they are nice. One thing, does the edge of the gutter not fray and become a hazzard to the mouth. i hope not cos i think its a winner otherwise

Carolswoolies

  • Joined Apr 2013
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #16 on: December 21, 2014, 07:44:51 pm »
Your instructions are perfect. I will give them a go.
Many thanks!

nimbusllama

  • Joined Nov 2010
  • Near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #17 on: December 21, 2014, 08:08:59 pm »
Ewesaidit.... I try to avoid it if possible, although he has shown no sign of aggression apart from the day I collected him and he was a bit angry!  Since then he has been to a show and behaved very well (came first!) as shown in the attached photo.
Womble .... he has a knack of scratching his ear on the wire and then unraveling his horn like doing a metal puzzle... without any panic!  although he does test the wooden fencing posts to see if they 'bend' sometimes!

nimbusllama

  • Joined Nov 2010
  • Near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #18 on: December 22, 2014, 09:38:29 am »
Womble... forgot to ask, have the Mad Loaghtans settled down yet?

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #19 on: December 22, 2014, 11:31:50 am »
Hi Graeme, I don't think the plastic will fray, but will keep an eye on it.  Yes, the sheep are Mad Manx Loaghtans.
 
Nimbusllama - Despite my best efforts, they're still pretty wild I'm afraid. Despite feeding them a very small amount of coarse mix daily in a pen, they won't go in and eat it until I'm at least half a field away, and not looking at them!   Lovely sheep, but as long as they view me as a predator, things are never going to be easy  :( .
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

EP90

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • Ireland
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #20 on: December 22, 2014, 05:40:59 pm »
Here comes the party pooper  :celebrate: :celebrate: :celebrate:  when it's windy here, even the lumpen wet wooden bought bakies/troughs move around in the wind.  Yours being lighter wouldn't last a week here.  Sorry Womble - it's ingenious though.

Extend the end two feet by 6 inches, drill half inch holes in the ends of the feet and hammer 2 feet of rebar (in the shape of a walking stick) through them.   :thinking:

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #21 on: January 11, 2015, 12:06:46 pm »
OK, having finally had some wind, I reckon I'd better report back!

I deliberately put the two troughs on our most exposed spot at the top of the hill. On Thursday night we lost one tree, a quarter of the greenhouse and a section of dry stone wall. The sheep shelter also broke one of its tie down ropes and swung round through 90 degrees (probably whilst full of sheep!). Thinking positively, we gained plenty of firewood and half a dozen of next door's licky buckets  ;D .

HOWEVER, the two troughs were still exactly where I left them, so I consider that test passed!  :thumbsup:
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

bazzais

  • Joined Jan 2010
    • Allt Y Coed Farm and Campsite
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2015, 05:14:02 pm »
They look the mutts nuts - and an idea to be stolen - thank.

ladyK

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Conwy Valley
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #23 on: January 18, 2015, 07:16:18 pm »
Well, I made one!  :excited:
Thank you to Womble for the onspiration, and the detailed instructions!

Mine looks not quite as neat but still quite happy with it, taking into account that I'm pretty much clueless with DIY.
So it took me the best part of 3 hours, plus it turned out to be rather expensive... ::)
Entirely my fault: local builder merchants only does square profile guttering on order. But I wanted to get on with it, and saw some fat grey round guttering standing there in the warehouse, and said 'I'll have that then'. Only when I paid did I realise that this is 'industrial guttering' and 4 times as expensive as the normal stuff  :o
Makes for a bigger and heavier trough, but I don't really need that with my Soays.

Oh well. I'm still rather pleased with it, and I learned a few things making it too  :thumbsup:
"If one way is better than another, it is the way of nature." (Aristotle)

couann

  • Joined Apr 2013
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #24 on: January 26, 2015, 04:42:04 pm »
I use big garden cane .....the really big one the size of 2 gutters glued together,available in garden centres. I cut them down the centre tacked/nailed one to feet  and can be turned upside down or hung upside down off the fence. I made it high so they can not jump over it all the time ...or at least less :) To use the other half I made two shaped brackets  that the cane trough sits into, & screwed them to the shed wall (out a bit to allow space for horns) . These work great as the cane has cross pieces inside it so these act as stoppers, it prevents the greedy from just hoovering down along the feed. It also can just be turned over. Really really pleased with them

Penninehillbilly

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • West Yorks
Re: A ridiculously easy sheep trough design
« Reply #25 on: June 26, 2015, 08:19:01 pm »
Hey Womble
don't know how I missed this, but we have some guttering, lots of wood lying round, goats that fight over the diddy trough, must try this, copied your info. thanks.

 

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