Lambing is starting in less than a week and this year we are not going to throw the hay in a corner of the jug. Having a feeder in the jug can help prevent a lot of waste and building your own is a lot cheaper than purchasing a pre-built feeder.
All the wood working tools are stored away (to make more room for the sheep) so we had to use what was available, that meant using bolt cutters, handy panels (welded wire panel 8 ft by 50 inch) and wire ties. I know, it sounds like a MacGayver story plot. The goal was to create a feeder that can be used from both sides of the lambing jug, thereby serving two ewes. The picture above shows the end product.
Step 1:
Cut the outline of the unfolded feeder from the handy panel using bolt cutters. With the layout used we got two feeders from one handy panel. The edges where we made the cuts were sharp sow we used a angle grinder to remove the sharp edges.
Step 2:
Fold the sides of the feeder as shown in the picture below.
Step 3:
Fold the bottom of the feeder as shown in the picture below.
The bottom of the feeder and the sides are not touching, this is intentional, we wanted the read of the feeder to be as wide as two columns of the panel used to build the sides of the jugs.
Step 4:
Secure the bottom of the feeder to the sides by folding the wire as shown below.
Step 5:
Fold the wires at the top over as shown in the picture below to create two hanging hooks. This will be used to hang the feeder over the panel used to build the sides of a jug.
Step 6:
Hang the feeder over the side panel of the jug. Secure the bottom of the feeder and hanging hooks with wire ties to the side panel. Cut the extra part of the wire tie once secured.
