We’ve got a great system going for hay routines this winter. Each afternoon I barricade the door to the hay barn and put out a small bin of loose hay to keep the ‘spectators’ happy. I unwind enough hay from the large round bale to fill four hay bags (about three flakes each). Those bags will be put out the next morning.
The hay bags get latched into good sized food bins. That keeps the hay bag in the bin and away from donkey hooves. (On the few occasions that a hay bag has been cleverly removed from the food bins it has invariably found its way around a donkey leg.)
Currently, four bins are served up in the back paddock. That is the paddock with the donkey barns. In this cold or stormy weather I’ll often put the bins in the barns (again latched to the barn wall … or else they get dragged all over … and clever Darby knows how to use them to block doors … or to even line them all up so SHE gets all of the food!)
Two bins get served up in the front paddock where the donk-a-lonks like to sleep on sunny days. Using the hay bags in bins has been really great. It allows the donkeys to ‘graze’ all day. When they were eating loose hay – or when I foolishly was allowing them to eat from the big round bale right in the hay barn – they each got so bloated! AND they ate way too much. So we have twelve hay bags and six bins. Each afternoon six get filled and they are the fresh bags for the next morning. Those six hay bags last all day and night. Hay! We have a system! 😉
Bag ’em
By
The Meadow View 