6/17/2023 0 Comments Rabbit hay feeder diy![]() ![]() While pondering the blisters on my hands from awkwardly pulling the hay fork as a vertical rake of sorts, I realized the true value of those old wooden hay rakes that I’d seen in photographs. One advantage of stacking loose hay under cover is that you don’t have to form the structure so it will shed rain, and since it also is out of the sun, you will lose much less hay to weathering than when stacked outdoors.Īs efficient as the fork is for loading and stacking, the rake is really necessary for gathering. It took much less time to fork together the loose hay, load it on the wagon, and haul it to the barn - where I stacked it in the corner of the old feeding floor - than it did to mow. Whew, I was pooped - but not as pooped as a couple days later when I went to gather up the windrows using a pitchfork. I quit cutting that first day a much more efficient mower than when I started, and I managed to knock down about a quarter of an acre in the process. The scythe easily sliced through the vegetation right at ground level and left it in loose windrows about 5-feet wide, where it cured undisturbed for two days in the hot Kansas sun. It took about an hour to find my rhythm and to learn when to give the blade a lick with the whetstone. My former manual-mowing experiences were limited to periodically whacking weeds in places where I couldn’t maneuver the tractor and shredder, so I checked out some online videos to get a feel for the proper scythe swing. The growth was a lush mix of cool-season grasses, warm-season grasses, sweet clover and black medic. Since I already owned an Austrian-style scythe, complete with a snath custom-fit to my 6-foot-4-inch frame (about $250), and since we had a few old pitchforks (free to me) and wagons cluttering up the barn, I decided to hit the hay meadow hard within a day of hatching the plan. Plus, I am no fan of running on a treadmill for fun or exercise, so I figured I could get healthful quantities of workout and recreation if I put this hand-haymaking scheme to the test. Making hay the old-fashioned wayĮven though I love the sounds and smells associated with making hay using diesel-powered equipment and modern, self-tying large-round balers, I’ve always wondered whether I could pass muster with my ancestors and make sufficient hay to feed a small flock of sheep through the winter months using a scythe, primitive hand hay rake, pitchfork and wagon. Is there an easy way to scale up production with minimal investment in machinery? The answer is yes, although I was motivated to prove it to myself, feed some sheep - not rabbits - and get into shape. Let’s just say you have sufficient hankering for hay that something in the realm of a ton is needed to see your rabbits through the year. All it will cost you is a bit of seed and a few hours of exercise. If your growing season supports it, you might get two or three cuttings from that patch and net something more like 250 pounds. A single cutting from a 500-square-foot patch (25 feet by 20 feet) could realistically supply up to 150 pounds of high-quality hay. ![]() Let the vegetation dry in the sun for a couple of days (until grass stems will break when you fold them in half, and no dampness or lush leaves remain), rake it up, and pack it in paper bags, or compress it in a cardboard box and tie with string to make small bales. When the growth is rank and lush, you simply cut it with a machete, nonpowered weed whacker, sickle, or even a scythe if you happen to have one. You don’t need more than a bit of backyard to make it happen.įor folks with only one or two rabbits to feed, all the hay you need could be produced by planting a mixture of oats, clover and Timothy grass in your garden. Most seem not to realize that making hay the old-fashioned way can reduce their hay bill to nil - and maybe even their waistline by several inches. ![]() While many folks rush off to the pet store to source miniature hay bales for big bucks, others source it more reasonably in 70-pound bales right from the farm. Either way, between the eating and the pulling of hay from the feeders for bedding, at the end of the year, you could be looking at up to 100 pounds of hay per rabbit (enthusiasts heatedly disagree on just how much hay an individual rabbit will need). Some say Timothy hay is best, others say plain old mixed-grass hay is the only way to go, and still others say to mix in a little alfalfa or other leguminous hay to boot. Feeding rabbits is a hot topic among enthusiasts, but the one thing most rabbit-rearing folks agree on is that the loppers should have ad-lib access to hay. ![]()
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