[Mallows Flock]

These ideas are fab!
But I am the world's most useless DIY'er, so I make my trailer work harder for the £1200 I spent on it!!!!!!!!!!
I simply get a round bale wedged into it, drive it into the field and leave it there opened up so the sheep can get in to eat round it and the hay stays dry. When it's near empty, I just drive up to the farm to get another! LOL! Simples!

[FiB]

We bought a Hay Hutch for the sheep a few years ago and then bought two more.  Not only does it keep the hay dry and tidy but the lambs climb inside and use it for shelter.  Ours are the small basic model but they're robustly made.

daft question.... dont the bigger ones end up wearing it?  Mine seem to find ways of doing this with anything in the field that isnt rooted to the ground!  I once put a patio swing in the field ready to take down to our sheds - the next thing one of them was walking around wearing it (looked like a tent walking around) .  I quite fancy making one out of an old barrel but cant see how they wouldnt just flip it over in their enthusiasm?  Is yours secured to the ground somehow?

[Small Farmer]

I know what you mean.  We made a sun shade out of some pretty heavy bits of access platform and found one of the ewes dragging it across the field wearing it .


We've had the hay hutches for 3 years and they do gently walk across the field over time but we've had no problems at all.  We've got GFDs and some crosses upto 75kg and they can't get inside - or don't want to.  Horses apparently can get the lid off so there's provision for one or two wing nuts  but we've not needed it.


We gave them Haylage last year which they loved and would try mugging us when we refilled so the kit has been pretty well tested.

[colliewoman]

These ideas are fab!
But I am the world's most useless DIY'er, so I make my trailer work harder for the £1200 I spent on it!!!!!!!!!!
I simply get a round bale wedged into it, drive it into the field and leave it there opened up so the sheep can get in to eat round it and the hay stays dry. When it's near empty, I just drive up to the farm to get another! LOL! Simples!

Oh Mallows!!


Allow me to teach you the 'I'm skint so have to build it myself basics' 

[clydesdaleclopper]

I cam across a plan for making one here http://www.tumbledownfarm.com/drupal/How_To_Do_Things/Sheep just scroll down a bit.


Another one here http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=15276


What I want is one that will take a whole big round bale where they don't waste so much as the one we are currently using which is one of these http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/mvf/store/products/iae-round-bale-sheep-feeder. Any ideas how I can modify it to stop them just pulling all the hay out and trampling it into the ground, jumping on top of it and also how to keep it dry.

[Foobar]

You want something like this:  http://www.solwayrecycling.co.uk/recycled-shop/sheep-lambing/feeders/monster-hay-feeder
(with sheep opening ... although even those seem a bit big to me)

[Mallows Flock]

These ideas are fab!
But I am the world's most useless DIY'er, so I make my trailer work harder for the £1200 I spent on it!!!!!!!!!!
I simply get a round bale wedged into it, drive it into the field and leave it there opened up so the sheep can get in to eat round it and the hay stays dry. When it's near empty, I just drive up to the farm to get another! LOL! Simples!

Oh Mallows!!


Allow me to teach you the 'I'm skint so have to build it myself basics' 

Oh Colliewoman
I need DIY skills... yes teach, teach, teach me! That way I can work to pay for clothes that are not ruined and shoes that are not wellies instead of spending all my hard earned wonga on buying stuff for my field at top dollar new price 

[princesspiggy]

 
Get an old wooden cot, and take the fixings out of the bottom of the side panels. leave the top fixings in place. Take a piece of baler twine and tie the bottoms of the side panels togetherin a V shape. Add hay
 

we did that too!! worked a treat til the pigs got in the field and broke it 

[GoWest]

If you have sheep fencing you can use a compost sack (80 litres) and sew it to the fence with bale string
The hay tucks between the fence and the polythene.

[Blacklab]

hi, know I ' m a bit late in posting a reply to this query, but we use a sturdy wooden crate for feeding hay in the field, it' s the type used by builders to transport roofing slates, you can usually get one for free from a builders merchant or , like we did, from someone building a house nearby,    As they are quite strong and sturdy, ideal for feeding hay or haulage, minimal waste too, we just check all the joins to make no nails sticking out,   Also, sit the crate on a pallet or few breeze blocks to allow rain to drain out the bottom,

[jaykay]

Every year, a farmer near me makes a very long hayrack by knocking in fence poles in two parallel lines, and then fastening stock netting between them in a sort of hammock. I think he does two layers, overlapping, to reduce the size of the holes.

It's quite high off the ground - sheep head height - no lid, but keeps the hay from being trampled.

Seems successful as he repeats it each year, and I suppose the materials are reusable for a fence, or next year's hayrack.

[devonlad]

Not sure I'm the world's greatest diy er but I'll always give it a go. If in doubt whack in another nail.  Built my first proper Hayes rack recently as got fed up with waste trampled underfoot killing the grass. My beautiful free standing effort is made entirely of scrap wood and wire (plus nails) and even has a roof that covers the mineral lick to stop that being dissolved in the rain.  I am planning on seeing if the local primary school want to use it in their nativity play. Strangely since it went into use a few weeks ago our sheep have been emptying it regularly. They never eat hay  usually and the grass is the best its ever been at this time. Either its our very first  crop of home grown hay that's doing it or my magnificent hay rack