Big bale hay and straw - what do you do with yours?

[laceyfreckle]

If you buy big bale hay/straw how do you use and store yours? I believe they're not very easy to move!

I want to order some as they are a lot cheaper then bales. The people delivering have said they would unload it by rolling it off the trailer.

Any ideas if it would fit through a stable door? if so would it be easyish to manouver into a unused stable?

Other options are to either take it apart bit by bit and stack it in the spare stable (how easy and messy would that be to actually do?)

Or to leave it outside for the horses to eat at will (but would it get destroyed/be very wasteful? How about rain etc?

Can't buy small baled hay/straw as too expensive now at £4/£2 a bale when there are 20 bales in a big bale (8ft x 4ft x 2.6ish ft) which cost £40/£25

[IrishDQ]

I usually buy big round bales of hay, not sure they'd fit through a stable door as they are more like 5' wide than 4' but if you have a concrete yard on which to break some of it off it should be easy to sweep up. to break it up, just keep attacking it with the pitchfork :D if you're feeling energetic you could break the whole lot up and just throw it in a pile, it'd make it easier then for everyday feeding as you'd just have to fill up your barrow without having to fork some off of the bale every time.

[beating_hooves]

The farmer plonks ours in the yard and we just cover it with a few old rugs to keep it dry.

Taking it apart might work though :)

[sarchie]

You won't get them through a stable door unfortunately. I have an internal door from my stable going through to my feed room which is probably the size of a 2 stables. I have 10 round bales of hay stacked in there plus all my feed bins, rugs etc etc. But I have an OH + his tractor to move them! I keep mine really tidy, hate waste. Usually when you first open the bale the first layer will drop to the floor, but you can pick it up and lay it on top of the bale.

I put a bale out to my 2 one year but they couldn't eat it down quick enough and it went horrible. Half of it was wasted and had to be burned (even the cattle wouldn't touch it!) so unless you have several horses then I wouldnt bother. I use haynets outside.

[Matilda]

I order the large rectangular bales which are £25. I get about four at a time and the farmer "walks" them into a spare stable.