For Christmas we made the boys a hay manger. We liked the design of it so much that the first thing we did when we brought the girls home was go directly to the lumber store and buy supplies to make a second one!
The girls gather around their manger on a snowy day.
Now that we’ve been to several goat farms, I really like our hay manger design the best of what we’ve seen. We set the manger in the middle of our stalls which allows the goats to space around them and eat. Of course, our mangers are small – only holding about a full bale of hay (less of the alfalfa/orchard grass bales) – and we only have a few goats eating out of each manger. Eventually we’ll have to modify the design or just build more of these mangers and space them out.
I thought I’d walk you through the basics of our hay manger. First, after a lot of debate, we went with the plan from Goat World with a few modifications. We liked this plan for several reasons. One, it was fairly inexpensive – I think we spent about $30 on each manger. We liked the airiness of the design – no solid floor, plenty of room for ventilation and letting small pieces fall aside. It allows for easy eating from the side and the top, with plenty of room for our goats to stand around it.
First, measure and mark your lumber.
I recommend trying not to make these mangers on the coldest day of the year like we did. I was all bundled up while working in the garage with the kerosene heater burning!
Next, carefully cut the lumber at the designated spots.
Obviously, HB is more accustomed to the cold than I.
Then, it's time to make the base.
Because HB has a variety of wood-working tools, we use these handy clamps to hold our wood base “square” (although, it’s really a rectangle). The GoatWorld article mentions a different way to ensure you maintain 90* angles.
Then, you add on the legs
This is one place we modified our design and used treated lumber for the legs since they will be in contact with urine, manure, soil, and who knows what. Once again, we like to use clamps to hold the wood in place while we tighten screws.
And now you start inserting the slats to hold it together.
This is when it starts to count – how square are those bases? Luckily you’re able to adjust it some by working the slats just right. Slats go down the sides and across the bottom.
You could stop here, but do you really want to? Because ....
Now, technically, you’re done. Congratulations! But we found one little problem, and easily remedied it. So let’s continue, shall we?
This gap needs a remedy
When we made the first one, we decided we didn’t like this gap that occurs on the row of bottom slats. It’s several inches wide and we thought a flake could fall out easily. So we decided to add another slat, which takes a little finesse…
And we have just the fix for you!
First, DO NOT cut this piece of lumber when you do your regular cutting at the start of the project. Why? Because you want to make sure it fits the dimensions of the finished product. If your rectangular bases are out of alignment (ie: not square with tidy 90* angles), you might need these pieces to be longer or shorter, depending on how the manger comes together.
After measuring the space we cut the lumber. Then, to make a tidy fit, we cut little squares out of each end, so that it fits nicely alongside the upright slats.
Add a little more support, just in case.
Because of the addition of these extra end pieces, and having to cut out part of the wood to make a clean fit, we added additional support underneath.
The finished product!
And now, congratulations! if you stuck it out this far! You are officially done. Unless you plan to put this outside and want to add a roof. Which, eventually, I want to design how we will do that. But for now, we use these in shelters that already have a roof. Isn’t it handy?
Did I mention it was sturdy?
Oh, and did I mention how strong and sturdy they are?
Read Full Post »