hay going missing

[nimrod]

i moved into a new yard the other weekend. the YO sells those big bales of hay (rectangle) for £30. I looked at how many sections where in it and calculated this bale would last me around 1 month.

i have been at the yard for less than 2 weeks and there is only 1/3 of the bale left. how do people tackle this? it took me until a few days ago to determine whether i was just imaginging it and it had just collapsed on one side but last night it was obvious there was 2 more sections ,missing. i have now put a note on the bale stating it is mine incase someone is making a mistake, but i am so fed up with people who thinkits ok to take other people's things. i am not made of money so i will have to make sure i am not giving my horse too much this month. what else can i do to stop this from happening? its a very large yard so would be practically impossible to find out who it may be. short of rigging up cctv!

between having to buy a new car and now this i give up. roll on 2006

[gordo]

Cover your hay in bright food colouring! Wont hurt the horse and, if they manage to feed it before you get there, it will be all over their hands!! The gits!!

[gem]

I would tie the bale up so that it will be clear if someone takes some, also good idea re the food colouring failing this tell the yard owner that you will not pay full price for a bale when people continually steal from you.

[Native Ponies]

Or make a point. Put up an electric fence around it.

[jor]

I had this problem when I was on a large yard, everyone had thier own large bale (or small bales) of hay or haylage. I was one of the very few people who had haylage. I noticed quickly that the bale was not as id left it (I would sweep round it everytime I used it and never left any haylage fallen at the side of the bale.) It took longer, however, to find the culprit. There were over 100 horses on the yard including riding school horses and anyone could have been taking my haylage.
A couple of other liveries were also having this problem (all had haylage) we decided to go round everystable who had hay and check the nets, we found two ponies who had haylage in with thier hay and questione dthe owners, however both these owners cofnirmed they were paying to use the schools haylage to mix with thier hay...the hunt went on!
A week later (and most oif my haylage bale!) we heard about the food colouring trick, as we were pretty sure whoever was stealing the haylage was doing so late on in the evening (about 8pm) we thought bright red and blue food colouring was a good idea. We covered our bales in it one night and the next morning the culprit was obvious! There was a trail of blue and red across the yard to one of the stables where the haylage had been trailing ont he floor out of someone arms, they must have realised as thier clothes would have been COVERED in it, and they had made an attmept to wash/sweep it up but had failed asnd there were bits and bobs leading to the horses stable and bits on the stable door and on the wall and floor of the horses stable....AND on the muzzle of the horse too (was a grey!) plus a nice big handprint in red and blue next to the bolt on the door we were LOL.
The owner admitted to stealing once she saw the evidence, what she had been doign was giving her horse a small haynet of hay at about 5pm and going home, then coming back at 8:30 and taking a large handful from two of the haylage bales and putting it on the floor and then just giving the horse hay in the daytime, cheeky mare!
Mind you she paid up for all the haylage she had stolen, if she had said she was struggling to pay for hay for her horse we all would have helped out anyway but there you go!

[amma]

i think thefood colouring is a great idea, another approach is to tell the YO and also tell them that you are going to leave a note on your bale to the thief, then write on a very large piece of cardboard or paper, IF YOUR HORSE IS STARVING BECAUSE YOU CANNOT AFFORD FOOD FOR HIM/HER JUST ASK ME TO DONATE , DO NOT STEAL MY HAY PLEASE. This may well shame the thief into giving up or will highlight a welfare problem.At least you wont fall out with anyone. if this doesnt work then i'd definately go for the food coloring option, only use loads of it to be effective.

[nimrod]

i hadn't thought of food colouring - the electric fence is a good idea! it was when i started to tie the bale up i realised it was definitely going missing. i've put up a polite notice from my horse rather than from me, so we'll see tonight....

[Emily+Meg]

Wow I like the food colouring idea!

[gordo]

Evil me!!!

[nimrod]

ok, so went up last night, someone had quite blatently ripped my label off stating it was mine and helped themselves to another 2 large sections. i am mega pissed off !!! what is it i do with the food colouring???

[gem]

Nimrod,

All this food colouring is fun but you need to speak to your yard owner and tell them that unless it is resolved you wont pay for hay or something along those lines, failing that buy a container to put the hay in and lock it, homebase have something that should fit it, its expensive as a one off BUT if it stops the theft?

[nimrod]

i will be speaing to the farmer later today. these are mega huge bales, so container won't do, however i thought i could buy a tarpaulin, tie it to the pallet and padlock it on. its ridiculous though, can't believe people can be so blatent.

[Su]

Is the bale too big that you couldn't make up loads of haynets? I would ask about alternative storage facilities. Could you get a cheap shed and store the hay in there???

[lilaclomax]

I would not like to be in your shoes - what a pain in the ar**! Definately talk to the farmer, be nice and polite and just ask if he is aware of the theft that is ongoing. Ask if he has a shed or other container that you could use or failing that... check out the local free papers and see if you can get one of the garden storage sheds either free or cheap, then bale up as many nets as you can and store then outside putting all the loose hay inside the locked shed. It may be a pain to do but also put a small elastic band around the net opening so you know if anyone has opened them.
The food colouring is a great idea but not if you have to do it all year round! I know that you used to be able to get those tarpaulin sheets with rivot holes around the edges, your idea may be the cheapest and easiest (although it would be great if you didn't have to worry at all!) thread through the holes and the pallet and get a huge padlock!!!

Good luck - I would still have a go with the food colouring just for a giggle, you never know the thief could be caught red handed (sorry - terrible joke!)

[jor]

Re food colouring, buy about 2/3 bottles of colouring (red cant be seen as easily on haylage as hay but green/blue (or even yellow?) would be better on hay.) Sprinkle it (put your finger half over the top) over the top section and the section behind it when you leave, sprinkle it all over, as much as you like (hehe).
The hope the person is doing this in the dark as it will provide amuch more spectacular smearing of food colouring all over the place than if they go to take it in the day time and realise!
Once youve done it the first time, if it deters the theif then just use a smaller amount everyday on the front section and it may just work long term if they arent found out.