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[CCUK]

Do they mean the straw will drain and not soak up like the shavings? Is the stable on a sloap or something?

£5 a small bale here too. I’m glad I got some done myself last year now. But I’m going to have to make it last until this years cut is ready to use. If we have another summer like last year I’m not sure it will though....
Can you store big bales at the yard for the horsey? Our yard stopped it for all new liveries as there was just no space for it all. All new liveries now have to use the yards hay/haylage & straw and get billed for it.

I'm not 100%sure on the straw thing but DW says nansi eats it too.
There isn't much storage at the yard but they don't mind us using our own. I can store big bales at my parents farm but we have to collect it whenever we need it.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Yeah some just can’t stop themselves from eating it! I’m quite lucky with Harry that he only likes a nibble on the very fresh newly baled straw! Then again he’s such a fussy feeder....
That’s handy on the storage for hay so I would say go for it and get some baled. I saved a fortune on doing it ourselves. Was hard work getting it in by hand but we got there in the end.... it really did feel like a never ending job.....

 

[CCUK]

Yeah some just can’t stop themselves from eating it! I’m quite lucky with Harry that he only likes a nibble on the very fresh newly baled straw! Then again he’s such a fussy feeder....
That’s handy on the storage for hay so I would say go for it and get some baled. I saved a fortune on doing it ourselves. Was hard work getting it in by hand but we got there in the end.... it really did feel like a never ending job.....

It was quite late in the year when we got her so I want yo be a little better prepared this time round!

 

[PouleChick]

Has anyone else noticed the price of wood shavings going up? I just had to pay £8.50 for a bale It's not so bad for me as I only get through one every three weeks but the wifey is using 3-4 a week with the horsey!

Wow that is pretty cheap! We pay around the €10 - up to about €15 but I always try to get it on offer at €9.90 - wouldn't pay €15!

It’s been that much here for a while for shaving’s.
Wow that’s a lot for the horsey! Could it not go on straw? Then again straw has really gone up this winter. Was £1.20 last winter & is now £2 per small bale. Just glad Harry only uses 1 - 1 1/2 per week!

I bought good heavy small bales for €2 / bale and have also had crap light ones for the same price!

We're struggling a bit for hay as well. It's £5.50 a bale from the yard we can get it elsewhere for £5.00.

Eek that is alot.

I saved a fortune on doing it ourselves. Was hard work getting it in by hand but we got there in the end.... it really did feel like a never ending job.....

Was that just using the grass etc? I look at the amount we rake up on the first big cut of spring on our back 1/4 acre and wonder if something couldn't be done with it!

To be fair, Skippy was part detective / sniffer-roo and helicopter guidance co-pilot so its not outta context , but wallabies for primary school, surely

Absolutely wallabies a much better size for smaller kids - those roos can get huge

 

[Sneebsey]

Mine are £10 a bale, but I've noticed the one I get now is far more tightly packed and absorbant; I can do all the sheds with under 2 bales. I've used a few ones before where even three gone they're still a bit sparse.

Thought I'd share a picture of my first hatch of the year; very happy with 24/24 fertile. Only 20 hatched, unfortunately, but still good numbers this early in the year. I'm yet to see anything happening for that poor silkie sitting during that cold spell, due friday, so we'll see; perhaps I shall have to relinquish some of these into her charge.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Mine are £10 a bale, but I've noticed the one I get now is far more tightly packed and absorbant; I can do all the sheds with under 2 bales. I've used a few ones before where even three gone they're still a bit sparse.

Thought I'd share a picture of my first hatch of the year; very happy with 24/24 fertile. Only 20 hatched, unfortunately, but still good numbers this early in the year. I'm yet to see anything happening for that poor silkie sitting during that cold spell, due friday, so we'll see; perhaps I shall have to relinquish some of these into her charge.

View attachment 1672277

Super cute! Congratulations!

 

[Perris]

awww they are adorable

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Was that just using the grass etc? I look at the amount we rake up on the first big cut of spring on our back 1/4 acre and wonder if something couldn't be done with it!

It was using the grass margins at a farm just down the road where my son & his dad shoot. Previous years they have just cut the margins so we asked if we could buy the grass so to speak. They said we could have the grass as long as we sorted getting it cut & baled. We did a deal with another farmer friend who cut it, turned it & baled it for us in exchange for some of the bales. Worked out well but it was hard work getting the small bales in from the field by hand!

 

[CCUK]

Mine are £10 a bale, but I've noticed the one I get now is far more tightly packed and absorbant; I can do all the sheds with under 2 bales. I've used a few ones before where even three gone they're still a bit sparse.

Thought I'd share a picture of my first hatch of the year; very happy with 24/24 fertile. Only 20 hatched, unfortunately, but still good numbers this early in the year. I'm yet to see anything happening for that poor silkie sitting during that cold spell, due friday, so we'll see; perhaps I shall have to relinquish some of these into her charge.

View attachment 1672277

They're so cute! Are they araucanas?

 

[Sneebsey]

They're so cute! Are they araucanas?

I'm still yet to get the pens up; where they'll be going is too boggy to work with yet, but I've landscaped some plumbing so should get there with warmer weather. Have two groups already housed independently but not penned and will get to improving these blues when I can get the ground dry enough to sink the corner posts and fit the panels; everything's already built and waiting.

Everyone is still running together for the most part, so they honestly could be anything. There's a few I know must have come from one or the other, but we'll see as they grow. Definitely no araucana chicks in there though, one araucana egg hatched, and there's three araucana cockerels so probably some mixes in there, but the only chick with extended black chick down, which all of my araucana are, hasn't a crest.