storing hay

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cat

cat

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hello,

as some of you know i live on a narrow boat. i buy bags of hay for my piggies and store them in the boat. they cost me £1 each and i go through about 7-8 bags a month (usually more in winter)

i have found a place near me that does bales of meadow hay for £5 i bought a small bag just to see if they would like it and they do.

my boyfriend and i rent a couple of barns off a farmer and i was wondering about buying a bale and storing it in there. only thing is we get a lot of rats up there and its not completely dry.

does anyone now a good way of storing a bale and keeping it dry?

thanks

Cat :)
 
you could store it in a hay bag that has plastic lining to prevent moisture,you would have to put the plastic in yourself though as the bale bags dont have them normally,Bale bags can be brought from most produce stores.
Rats on the other hand are a problem because they will chew through most things,i dont have an answer for that one but goodluck anyway
 
We store 300 bales in an open fronted dutch barn, you're going to get rats just about anywhere, but I've never really had any problems with them. The wild rats might set up an occasional nest in them but it's very rare, I don't think you'd have much of a problem just keeping 1 bale. If you think you will you could put some poison down.

If the barns are not waterproof you'll need to cover it, as long as it's kept dry it will be fine, bales will go mouldy if they get wet and don't dry quickly after. Mainly mouldy bales originate from the grass not being dry when they're baled up.

Good luck.
 
thanks for all your help.

my concern about covering it was because i was worried condensation might build up and make it go mouldy.

my boyfriend and i were thinking of getting an old broken chest freezer and putting it in that, but we were worried about condensation.

:)
 
The only time you would get condensation is if the hay was baled wet or rained on and then covered, if the hay is nice and dry before it's covered it should be fine. I keep mine for the guineas in my shed outdoors in large plastic horse feed bags and they're never damp or get a condensation build up.

If it was me I would find the dryest part of the barn and maybe cover with someting breathable like hessian sacking.

From what you say about going through 8 bags a month you'll get through it pretty quickly anyway.
 
i know rats are a pain but they are a livng creature,please dont poison them its only natural for them to hang around and in barns,maybe you could use a humane trap instead xxxxxxx
 
Sorry Bonnie, I sometimes forget and revert back to being a farmer's daughter. Don't poison rats, if there are no feedstuffs in the barn they shouldn't be a problem anyway.
 
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