Dinner Bell

Everyone LOVES the dinner bell! In our paddock the ‘bell’ is the sound of the hay barn latch opening. I think Bella has decided that whichever hay bag she keeps her nose on … it’s marked as hers. (See the green lawn in the background!)

I fasten each bag into a feeding bin with four clips. That way the donkeys can push and pull against ‘something’ which seems to make it easier to get the hay out of the bags.

Of course … Paco loves it best if I will spend some time pulling out the best greens.

I love how relaxed they are when I’m around the bins. I think it is going much better now that I’ve separated the bins a little. I used to have them all clipped together – thinking then the donk-a-lonks would have a ‘family table’ to eat at. Ha! That seemed to lead to Darby needing to eat one mouthful from each bin in a circuit …  They tend to move around even when the bins are spread out. I purposely put THREE bins out for the FOUR donkeys. That way they still need to share and get along. Rosie likes to eat on her own … or she’ll share with Darby. Darby will eat with anyone … or perhaps more correctly … all the other donkeys have learned they have to put up with Darby no matter what. She being boss lady!

Often times I will find these three eating together. Our current bale is so green and smells great! Isn’t it amazing that a hay bale can keep last summer’s grass this fresh over all that time. The first mechanical hay baler appeared in the 1930’s. Those would have been small square bales. In the 1970’s round bales started to become popular. I love how tightly our hay supplier does up his round bales. Makes for fresh grass all year long!