Soaking hay ** IT WORKED **

[Lorraine L]

I came up with a novel way to stop my hay from becoming ' hay lollies ' and unfeedable ( is that a word ? )

Of course this is still in the " Will it work... won't it work " stage but i have dug and half buried a metal tub into my muck heap ( which is VERY hot indeed ) I have filled the tub with water and placed the hay into it, and hopefully it " may " stop it from freezing.

Has anyone tried this before or am i going through another barking mad woman stage again ?

[mandal]

;D Lol the things we do! It's worth a try Lorraine and I hope it works, you might end up with cooked/burnt hay if it's that hot though. ;D
My utility is going to be taken over for soaking. I got a large wheelie bin (thanks to Rosemaryhannah) and I'm planning to fix a hose to the sink tap for filling. I syphon the water out so I can then move it to drain and refil for rinse. ;D Three packed large wheelie bins in 24 hours does my lot by dry weight.

[jen1]

ooo get you ya clever sausage, it should work, let us know how you get on

[anastasia55555]

Well i thought i was barking but i was going to dig a whole in my muck heap to put a dustbin of water in it to try and stop it from freezing so can give horses some unfrozen water! not done it yet but i think i will have to this weekend!

[julz]

How are you going to change the water?

[anastasia55555]

im guessing it would have to be bucketed out

[mandal]

I syphon mine out, that would work. Oh the trick is to put the hose in before you put the hay in and fill with water though.

[Lorraine L]

Yes i will syphen the water back out. The good news is that we only had a sharp frost last night and the top of the hay was white when i arrived ..... but, guess what ? Yeah, i had not only, non frozen, but in fact, warm hay !!

Obviously by the time i got to feed it to him, is was cold, but definately unfrozen.

I am now considering what else my free heating system might work for ?!?

[mandal]

Woo hoo! ;D If you put the hose in first you can syphon before you take the hay out and get nice drained hay to lift out. Except for a bit in the bottom.

I wonder what effect soaking in warm water has on the hay?

[Lorraine L]

That was my only worry Mandal ? The other thing was that i am unable to rinse it either ( because of the pipes being frozen ) but for Sunny, anything which stops me having to use unsoaked should be beneficial. He simply does not cope with dry hay over much more than a day or so without the pulses rearing up ?

Keeping a full bucket of water as a spare for rinsing is my next plan !! Our muck heap will just be a mass of buckets and tubs ! ( Well, all that energy and heat going to waste ) x

[lilaclomax]

I think the muck heap idea is great, we used to have our breaks with our feet inside the muck heap and eating Mars Bars when I was a youngster! Would love to utilise a muck heap now but the farmer takes ours away twice a week and the main heap is at the bottom of the fields.

I use a wheelie bin too but not in these temperature... go down to your local DIY store (or B&Q) and buy a water butt tap, find a handy person who can then attach it to the side of the bin / bucket (about 6 inches up) so you can just open the tap to drain out the water.
I add my haynets (use nets so I can hang and dry them before tipping the hay out), put a couple of blocks on the top to keep them weighted down and then fill using a hose connected to the tap. To drain the bin is wheeled over the top of the drain and the tap opened, it works really well

[Deleted]

soaking in warm water removes more sugar so it's all good

I like Ana's idea about a bin to keep water unfrozen

[mandal]

Dec 15, 2010 12:14:44 GMT 1 lilaclomax said:

I use a wheelie bin too but not in these temperature... go down to your local DIY store (or B&Q) and buy a water butt tap, find a handy person who can then attach it to the side of the bin / bucket (about 6 inches up) so you can just open the tap to drain out the water.

Yes, I have meant to do this but I'm scared I wreck it and don't get a good seal. I can't wheel my bin full of hay and water as it's 240 litres. I park it near the drain before filling.

[lilaclomax]

PTFE tape is a good one to use

The worse part is making the cut, best bet would be a small drill bit and then the larger circular cut out with a guide in the middle or if like me you don't have one then luck always works after a few scratches round before it bites!