Hay Feeders

There has been a lot of talk about various hay feeding systems on the lists lately. I thought I would post a photo of the "Red Green" hayfeeders I unvented last year. I'm sure other people have also come up with this in the past, but it was new to me. I know they're not the prettiest addition to the barnyard, especially the end with the lid as shown in these photos, but they do come in handy and they are cheap and easy to make.
After my hubby came home from the auction with two 55 gallon barrels, I started thinking about the best way to use them for sheep feeders. We've cut them in half width-wise before, turned them over and added openings for great little duck and goose houses. Plastic barrels are versatile, waterproof, cheap and almost indestructible. But you MUST make sure they weren't used for poisonous liquids in the past! Ours were from fruit juice concentrates...
Anyway, having a covered hay feeder was important to me as well as keeping the hay off the ground in my overstocked paddocks. After a little ruminating on the subject (bad pun- sorry!), I had the hubby cut the barrels in half lengthwise and screw on two sturdy boards for legs on each end. The key is to use wide sturdy boards for legs and not allow too much space between the halves, or the sheep will be able to get in and so will the rain and snow. For my Shetlands, low legs were important, the bottom half is just barely off the ground. You can see in the snow photo from a few days ago, our BFL ram lamb is a little too big for this feeder, but he prefers it over the other feeders anyway.
We used sandpaper to smooth down the rough cut edges of the barrel.
Anyway, I do like these feeders. They are easy to move and they accomodate 6 sheep easily. They keep most of the snow and rain out. We added three drain holes in the bottom of each feeder just in case.
The adult sheep don't get in, but lambs can. This actually came in handy when we had two bottle lambs in with our flock last spring. They would cuddle up together inside the feeder and stay warm and dry at night. It worked out very well since we don't use these feeders much when the sheep are on grass.