After spending almost a week on the tractor last spring cleaning up wasted hay that the horses used as bedding, I decided to find a different hay feeder for this winter. The solution I chose was one I had already tried back in 2011 and actually really liked. It involved using bulk hockey netting attached directly to the fencing, which could be easily filled with hay from outside the paddock. The hockey netting works as a slow feed net and is soft, sturdy, and weather-resistant, and the design is easy and efficient to use, with minimal mess or cleanup involved.
See Hay Net Helpers about the first hay net installation in 2011.
I began to regret not replacing the outdoor nets when they began to wear out, and decided to give them a second chance.
Having measured how much netting I would need for four hay nets before I ordered, I didn’t bother measuring before I cut this. I just stretched it out in the driveway, folded it in half, and cut it in the middle. Then I folded and cut those pieces in the middle again to get four equally-sized nets. It worked out just right. I suck at math, so if even I could pull this off, a person with normal addition and subtraction capabilities should have no problem here.
The trickier part is wrapping the nets over the fence boards and lacing the sections together with twine or rope. This time around, I bought the industrial size spool of cord from Arizona Sports Equipment to tie the nets, which I kind of regret. The cord seems strong enough, but it was very slippery and after only a few days, the knots all came undone and half of the nets came untied or unlaced. This is either a testament to my shitty knot-tying skills or my hungry hippos’ overzealous feeding habits—probably a little of both. In any event, I’d probably use something else next time. The first time I assembled these, I used clothesline. That was thicker and had better purchase for knot-tying. (Also, it was November when I installed these and the power washer is down, so the fence had to stay funky like this.)
Here, I still have to lace up the sides of this net, but as you can see (thanks to Hanz using his profile for modeling purposes—thanks, buddy!) this 72” net is not nearly as wide as its 90” predecessor, which spanned the whole section. Sadly, these are no longer available from the company. I was hoping the narrower net would stretch further so it could be secured to the posts on either side for stability. As it stands, it will sag and flop around as soon as any hay is put into it unless I come up with a solution.
This was my less-than-perfect solution. I bought 2 4-packs of Rhino ratchet straps and wrapped them around the adjoining posts and rails for support so I could stretch the nets and keep them from shifting around once the weight of the hay is on them and the horses start pulling on them. Rosie in particular likes to use a strategy of shaking the the hay from the net rather than pulling it out through the holes, so she really puts the nets (and the fence) through a workout. For the last four months this solution, though not the prettiest, seems to be doing the job.
Overall, these have held up nicely through the winter (except for the cord issue.) I still like the Arizona Sports Equipment Bulk Ice Hockey Netting, despite the fact that the available 72” width is a little skimpy for my purposes. It’s a quality product with a lot of versatility in and outside of the barn, and it holds up to a lot of abuse. If I really wanted to span the entire fence section length, I could get creative with two smaller widths side-by-side spliced together and hope the horses don’t eat through the rope, but I only feed hay outside a few months of the year, and these nets, like their predecessors, seem to be doing the job I need them to. The ones I made for inside the barn back in 2011 are still going strong. If you’re looking for a user-friendly hay net solution, this might be the one for you.
While you might not like these hay nets as much as the originals they seem to be working out okay. None of your horses look like they mind them and I don’t see any starving ones in the herd!