Hello collective Coth minds,
I’m looking at purchasing a couple of the wall hay net feeders similar to the Chix Nets or Hay Hoops.
My ask is that they are pretty easy to fill so when I’m gone at shows the husband can do it without much trouble. Apparently the regular hay Nets are too complicated. 
Any favorites? Or just spend the money and get the Chix Nets?
I saw this in a recent SSTack catalog and thought it looked pretty cool, and that it would address some of the issues I’ve heard about hay hoops.
Oddly, it’s not on the site.
I have one of the hay chix free up feeders; one barn I was at also thought hay nets were too complicated but were agreeable to this. Easy install and easy to use from my experience!
Hay nets are a piece of cake if you know this trick:
Get a round upright trash can (the one that are about hip high and about the diameter of a circle you make with your arms held in front of you.
Drop most of bag into trash can, draping several inches of net over the outside edge to hold it open and in place.
Place 3 - 4 flakes of hay in net. It will naturally drop into can and you can cinch up the cord that closes the top.
Hang from hook placed high in the stall. I use some of those over the stall blanket hooks. Easy, movable and versatile. No metal parts for horse to tangle with. I did have a feeder like the one in the post above. It worked OK, but didn’t hold up well and was a bit of a pain.
I have one horse that likes to play with his bag once his hay is gone. He has dislodged it a couple of time. I just wrap the cord around the hook a second time. Problem solved.
One caveat, my horses are barefoot. I don’t think I would use hay nets with shod horses. YMMV.
I have not had any barn help, DH included, that did not like the “trash can method.”
NibbleNets are real easy to load.
I’ve tried this and it does work.
Personally, I find it faster to stand up a small square of hay (vertical, so long way up). Do not cut the hay strings. Put net over hay, then cut hay string and tip to the side. The hay net knot stays on the net, catch the string directly opposite for hanging.
I use the shires small hole nets and the large size fits a bale of my small square minus about 3 flakes. For the next net, I again start with a new bale standing upright/vertical, net over hay, then cut bale and tip ot the side. You can free feed the leftovers in the stall, or pile them up and place net over them to fill.
Another solution might be to buy some more hay nets and leave the husband with enough filled hay nets that all he has to do is hang a new already filled net where the now empty net is.
This is the technique I use. It works out great.
we have three color coded hay nets for each horse, makes the feeding much easier to dump feed, hang hay net that is attached to the door. If in a rush, the third is still ready for the next feeding
Came here to say this. They’re also pretty indestructible and horses can’t get feet into them.
I hate filling those things. I find them much harder to fill than a standard hay net.
Agreed, I dislike them - and really any others that are made from nylon webbing. I have a couple for use in the trailer because they don’t seem to twist as much, but I HATE filling them.
Same. I find the Hay Chix pretty easy to load. The barn we’re at now is a haynet barn and they just use muck tubs for filling the nets and that works like a charm.
Doing the nylon ones hurts my soul.
I find having to deal with their bag closing thing to be a hassle too.
I use standard (whatever brand I happen upon when I need them) small hole, and ultra small hole hay nets. Pull up the cord in three or four places and toss on a double ended snap for easy hanging. Quick and painless. (I too use a muck bucket for filling, makes it so easy.)
I used to just hang them from the cords, but once I figured out how to tie them, I like them more. I do think they are easier to clip to a ring than having fiddle around to tie.
just hang them from the cords,
we use carabiners to hang the hay nets
I’ve got the Hay Chix Free Up feeder. It’s great. Order the biggest size they have, 24" x 24". Even the most unenthusiastic barn worker will find it easy to fill up.
Note: it comes with a locking pin on the latch that I initially worried about because I thought it was inevitable that it would get lost. My BO said don’t worry, the latch will still hold without it. We were both right.
Before that, I had the Schneider’s version. It had a smaller frame, making it harder to load than the Hay Chix, and it didn’t hold up as well. For me, the Hay Chix has been worth the extra cost.
If you’re handy, you can make one out of PVC pipe and a hay net. Way cheaper and as far as I can tell (some other people in the barn have them) they hold up well.
I just tied the pin to part of the hoop with hay net twine and that worked like a charm when I was using mine!
We use regular hay nets here for the horses that need them, and created a “filling station” in the hay barn. I have two heavy duty hooks on the wall at waist height, about 2 feet apart. The hay net is hooked on the wall, then pulled open with one hand. My free hand loads the hay in. This works well with both small bale flakes or parts of a large bale flake. I couldn’t get enough hay into the nets for my liking using a trash can without wedging the net in there and having to fight the garbage can to get it back out.
Dropping the net right over the bale works beautifully if you use small squares only, and a whole bale at a time.
If you know someone who can bend and weld some hoops for you it is much much cheaper than the frames commercially available. I have taken a couple of my Hay Chix nets and used a zip tie gun to attach the nets to the homemade frames. Frames were crazy cheap made from a 3ft steel rod from Lowes. Can’t remember what diameter I used but it was max of 8 bucks per rod. Use a couple U shaped metal pieces to secure bottom and add carabiner to top of the new hoop. Then put your clip point ring up where carabiner can actually reach. Not 100% flat to wall like the Hay Chix are but all in buying the nets on their super sale I would be in it about $40 each. But since I already had everything needed except the steel rods and it just required assembly it was something like $8 each.
I take NettingExpert’s Hay Net, Price is good, and they can customize the hay net. One more thing is that the quality is pretty good, you can take a look.
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