So our other weekend project was to build a feeder for the goats. They need to have their hay elevated so it won't get soiled with their, uh, presents. JD read that it will decrease food waste and help keep them free of parasites and worms and other nasties.
We started with an old workbench I'd built several years ago - I'm a master craftsman I am.
We cut the legs down to about 24 inches and added braces.
That's Henry modeling it for us. (Don't let the picture fool you - he's not that well-behaved. JD is standing off to the side holding Henry's toy.)
We added angled uprights to hold the hay in. We had to space them wide enough to allow them to stick their heads in but not so narrow that they'd get their heads stuck.
We placed in right inside the shed's sliding door so we can open it up and put a whole bale of hay right in the feeder.
We went out to say good morning to the goats the next day and found out that the uprights were wide enough alright - so wide they could jump right up and stand on their breakfast!
So then we added cross pieces to make the openings smaller. It's a good thing we did because as we were working on it, one of the twins (the shy one, strangely enough) jumped right up in the feeder between us while we were working on it!
I think we are all set now. They can stick their heads in and then duck down a little to pull their heads back out. JD suggested we add a second row of cross pieces just to be sure they couldn't jump over. That was a good idea since I already caught them standing on the lower cross piece trying to climb in!
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