# Made a new hay feeder for my girls!



## jaycee (Aug 3, 2011)

Hi I wanted to share pics of the new hay feeder I made for my girls out of scrap wood. Turned out OK but I already wish I'd made it larger... its 3 ft X 18 in X 2 ft deep...














































And here's one of the cow stanchion I just finished also this weekend for my girl Weezy since I'm showing off my extraordinarily ordinary carpentry skills lol...










Thanks for looking


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## DavyHollow (Jul 14, 2011)

I wish i had half your skills lol. I can't seem to nail together a square lol

Beautiful work.


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## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

Awesome! Only thing I would add to the goat feeder is a tray on the bottom.


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## jaycee (Aug 3, 2011)

Hi Kymi you are right and the tray is coming as soon as I get my hands on a piece of plywood! And thanks Davyhollow


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## mommaB (Oct 1, 2009)

AWESOME!!!!! Can you come to my house!? LOL


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## milk and honey (Oct 31, 2010)

Nicely done!!


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

Nice job! Pretty Nubians there too.


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## naturalgoats (Jan 3, 2011)

really nice!!
M.


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## Randi (Apr 22, 2011)

Nice work! Wish I had plans for that hay feeder......


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## Breezy-Trail (Sep 16, 2011)

Nicely done!

Is that movable? I would like to have one that can go from pen to pen. Something that can be unscrewed and put somewhere else if needed.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Very nice.... :hi5:


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## RMADairyGoats (Jun 20, 2011)

It looks great  Beautiful goaties you have there too 



DavyHollow said:


> I wish i had half your skills lol. I can't seem to nail together a square


lol!! Same here :laugh:


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## jaycee (Aug 3, 2011)

Thanks for the compliments guys. I only know enough about carpentry to get me into trouble it seems. My wife is constantly miffed that I spend way more time in the barn building things for the critters than in the house fixing stuff... I tell her my skills diminish when I go inside I have no idea why its like some kryptonite thing...

Jesse, it wouldnt be hard to move it, just take 4 screws each out of the top and bottom board that hold it to the wall and then screw it to any other wall... add two 4 foot legs to the inside of the side against the wall and it could be freestanding (though less stable if not screwed to the wall.

Randi all I did was use 2X4's and 3 inch deck screws. First cut 4 pieces each to the measures of the length and width. I cut 4 36" pieces and 4 18" pieces but as I said I wish I'd gone wider maybe 24" instead of 18"... it would hold more hay. Start by screwing two length pieces to the wall one below the other at the depth you want the feeder... I made it 2 feet deep with the bottom one about 2 feet off the ground. Then screw the width pieces on to the ends and then add the opposite length pieces at the end protruding from the wall so you have just screwed two boxes to the wall, one two feet above the other. (Do this without goats in the room btw or they will never let you get that far lol).

Once You have two boxes, cut 2 4 foot legs and screw them to the corners that stick out into the stall on the inside so they touch the ground and are even with the top... these add stability. All thats just a long way to say make 2 boxes from 2X4s and add legs to the side that isnt screwed to the wall. The only part thats somewhat tricky is to cut the slant pieces for the inside. The tricky part for a non pro carpenter like me is getting the right angles so they will fit flush to the frame at the top and bottom. I slid a 2X4 down under the boards (under the bottom board against the wall and the top board out in the stall) then took a framing square and marked vertical lines on the board along where the boards on the frame are... the lines you get should be parallel because both boards where it meets are vertical. Then cut one make sure it fits (I added a second 3 foot board above the bottom board on the wall to make the fit right when I slide the slant cut board up since the slant cuts are longer than 3.5 inches). 

Once you have the fit right then use that as a template to cut all the slats you need. My feeder has 7 spaced 3 3/4" apart... I chose that width because I had an old wall feeder made of iron bars that were spaced 4.5"... my goats could just weasel their head in there and it made me so nervous they would get butted with their head stuck in the feeder and it would injure them. So at this width they can get their nose in but not the top of their head. Then just space em out to width and put one screw top and bottom. I also added one 2 foot 2X4 on the ends in the middle so there wasnt a big gap there for goats to climb in or hay to spill out. And there you go. Hope that was decipherable. 

Also I suppose you could use nails instead of wood screws but I suspect youd have to build the boxes on a flat surface then nail them to the wall intact because otherwise you have nothing solid to nail to, with screws thats not so much a problem.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

> Thanks for the compliments guys.


 :thumbup: :hi5:


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