We are making a wooden hay feeder and I was wondering how high we should place the feeder. We are building a shelf w/lip underneath it to catch any hay that will drop and making a small trough type area that they will hopefully eat the dropped hay from.
Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. These are our first goats (Nigerian Dwarf) and they are arriving this weekend.
Replies
Thanks, I like the way it turned out. My husband wanted to make it more rustic looking that's why we used the ash branches. Plus they were free :) The goats love it, they put their hooves on the bottom board to browse. There is a little hay waste, it didn't turn out as deep on the bottom as I'd like but it works. I think we will put a bottom board underneath to catch the hay that drops with a little lip on the edge.
That looks very cool!
It looks great! I love the ash branches! :)
Here's a picture of our hay feeder that we built. It's rather large but eventually we will have a bigger herd. The slates are made out of an Ash tree branches that we cut down earlier this month because it was to close to the house. Behind the feeder is a trap door that we can open and place hay through, the top of the feeder is open also so can place the hay from there too. The bottom of the feeder starts roughly at 18 inches from the floor. We will see how this works, in the future some modifications might happen.
Hi Lisa - if you look at our pictures on the Mason Hill Farm site you will see the hay feeders we build. The top is 4 foot high and the "tray" is 14 inches off the ground - the goats love it and the little ones can reach just fine.
We made one out of scrap lumber. The body is the size of a hay bale, the legs put the bottom about 18 inches off the ground. The ends are closed. Because it is also used as a divider in its current location, the bottom is enclosed on three sides - the goats love that little *cave* and often sleep there. The long sides of the body (where the hay is) are pieces of cattle panel and accessible from both sides of the space into which they are divided. I have been very, very pleased with the way this works. The girls go back and forth from using this one to using the commercial feeder on the wall. I think it depends if they want their dinner at shoulder height or if they want to reach up for it. When I move the girls into the closer-to-getting-completed barn, I will take a photo of it and post it. It is great to have it dual purpose and able to hold a full bale of hay. Note that I do not just put the bale in and forget it; I "rearrange" it every couple of days so they are always getting "fresh" hay (or think they are). I love they they like it and that it was basically free.
Thank you for the responses.
We are building a three sided hay feeder that will screw into the wall, it's going to be box shaped, it will have a top on it because there is an opening in the side of the wall that I can place the hay into then close the hatch. I'm going to place the bottom of the feeder at 2 feet from the suggestions & based on their height. If the babies can't reach I'll place a step for them to reach until they get bigger.
When we get the hay feeder done I'll take pictures & post them.
Here's a link with photos that may help:http://nigerianmeadows.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/hay-manger-for-my-n...
Just to clarify - it's the top of the feeder that would be 4 feet high (not the bottom), but you probably already knew that, since full grown ND's average 19" high at the shoulder. Have fun!
I suppose it depends on exactly how you plan to build your hay feeder. I get the feeling people are talking about vastly different things in their responses. I've never seen a hay feeder that was four feet off the ground for Nigerians. Adults would be standing on their hind legs to eat, and kids would never be able to eat. Pictures would be helpful. Initially I just put hay feeders right at nose level for the goats, which is about two feet off the ground measured from the bottom of the hay feeder. But we have some homemade hay feeders now that are only a foot off the ground at the bottom; however, the top is about four feet off the ground. Maybe Maria was talking about the top of the hay feeder?
As for hay nets -- they are not recommended for goats as they can get tangled in them and hang themselves. If memory serves, I think that has even happened to someone on this group.
As for "deep bedding," I know it sounds kind of unusual, but many people use it in cold climates, and it works fine as long as your barn is well ventilated. We usually go about 3-4 months without cleaning out our barn in winter. As long as you don't dig into the bedding, the ammonia smell stays locked in. This means that once you dig into it, you MUST clean it all out that day because the ammonia in the barn will be horrendous. An advantage of deep bedding in cold climates is that it keeps the goats a lot warmer than a thin layer of bedding that is cleaned out frequently. If you have kids in there, however, you need to frequently add clean bedding so that you don't have exposed poop.
Hi Lisa,
Goats will jump into the feeder if they can, so just make it high enough to prevent them from doing so (about 4 feet high should do it). Try to build it in such a way that they cannot back up and poop into the lower feed tray, since they won't eat the hay fallings if they're mixed with feces.
Also, if you let the bedding build up, just be mindful that even with a dirt floor, urine will build up in the bedding, so you'll want to clean it out at least every few weeks, since the ammonia is not good for their breathing. We just toss the used bedding from the stalls onto a tarp and then drag it outside onto a pile for the winter, where we use it as mulch for the garden in the spring.
And it's best if you don't heat their barn area. As long as they're out of the wind and are well bedded down, they'll do just fine in our Nova Scotia winters (with free choice hay and a cup or so of concentrates).
Enjoy!
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next