manure fork for winter

[2miniB]

Normally, we use fine tines manure forks to clean up the run-in where the horses live. They work well until winter, since they can’t stand up to frozen manure. The footing is 3/8" crushed granite. I like the design and tine spacing, but I need something that’s made from metal not plastic.

All the metal manure forks I’ve seen have tines that are pretty widely spaced. That won’t work for the minis. Are there any that have smaller spacing/more tines?

[Leather]

Your best bet might be to use a metal garden rake to loosen and rake everything into a pile, then use your regular fork to scoop.

This is what I’ve wound up doing this year now that I’ve got my mini.

[SuckerForHorses]

[QUOTE=Leather;8981529]
Your best bet might be to use a metal garden rake to loosen and rake everything into a pile, then use your regular fork to scoop.

This is what I’ve wound up doing this year now that I’ve got my mini.[/QUOTE]

Yep.

Step 1: Use one of these rakes to beat the hell out of the frozen poop, rake into 1 loose pile

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/razorback-forged-bow-rake?cm_vc=-10005

Step 2: Use regular fork to transport to wheelbarrow, thus saving your plastic tines from beating frozen poop apart.

Easy peasy.

[Kyrabee]

I use a regular garden hoe or the garden rake works too. You definitely need 2 implements (rake or hoe plus manure fork) in winter if you want your manure fork to survive.

Susan

[RPM]

Wow – I never heard of manure freezing. Maybe that is one reason another poster wants to move south!

Could you scoop the manure with a shovel and filter it through your fork? Or break it up with the shovel?

Or can you scoop it while it’s fresh and warm, before it has time to freeze?

[SuckerForHorses]

[QUOTE=RPM;8982361]
Wow – I never heard of manure freezing. Maybe that is one reason another poster wants to move south!

Could you scoop the manure with a shovel and filter it through your fork? Or break it up with the shovel?

Or can you scoop it while it’s fresh and warm, before it has time to freeze?[/QUOTE]

well, I can’t speak to the other person, but frozen manure is only one small reason why I want to move south! :lol:

Even round-pointed shovels sometimes aren’t enough to bust up a pile of frozen manure, especially when its frozen solid.

Unless the OP is able to walk around every 30 minutes to pick up warm poop before it freezes, that probably isn’t a feasible solution. In VT, our poop freezes within hours, and since I work all day, I do poop duty at night in my paddocks, and depending on the temperatures, some is already frozen like concrete. :mad:

[bdj]

I have one like this one: http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/groundwork-10-tines-steel-bedding-fork-with-long-hardwood-handle for when the going gets tough.

Frozen poop is terrible, although I admit, I find a small bit of entertainment in how the individual balls sound just like pool balls hitting the wheelbarrow…

[Loves_to_ride]

I use an ice chipper to loosen the frozen manure and than use my plastic pitchfork to pick everything up. It works, but is tough on the wrists.

I’m also interested in hearing what other people do…

[Rackonteur]

[QUOTE=bdj;8982996]
I have one like this one: http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/groundwork-10-tines-steel-bedding-fork-with-long-hardwood-handle for when the going gets tough.

Frozen poop is terrible, although I admit, I find a small bit of entertainment in how the individual balls sound just like pool balls hitting the wheelbarrow…[/QUOTE]

I was gonna say, Come down South! But I dunno, you make this sound pretty entertaining. Now I wanna write a screenplay and call it “The Color of Monure”.:lol:

[crosscreeksh]

A “Stone” fork works well and is indestructible!! Looks like a narrower “Fantastic” fork, but the teeth are steel!! That was the only tool we used back in our upstate NY days…and before they invented fiberglass ones!! Works great, but heavy!!

[Nancy1]

I use a metal hay fork to unstick the manure from the snow. And then pick them up with a regular plastic manure fork.

[partita]

I find picking manure when it’s freezing out much easier than when it’s raining.
I don’t worry if I don’t get every little piece or even every pile it it is freezing, because the frost kills the bugs too. But I do try to keep up with it as best I can because it does get messy when it melts. I just use my regular plastic fork. Mostly I shove it under the piles if they’re stuck to the ground and it loosens them enough. I know just how brutal I can be before breaking a tine. If they’re really frozen, I use a shovel first. And if they’re really really frozen, they stay till it warms up. I agree, there is something satisfying about the sound of the frozen balls falling into the wheelbarrow! How little it takes to entertain us!

[Kyrabee]

partita…I’m with you. As much as I don’t like the cold, it is really kind of nice. Just make a quick circuit with the hoe to loosen the piles and then make a circuit with the cart to pick it up. Much easier than trying to coax it out of sucking, heavy mud. My friend and I have been picking our horses’ pens because the help went out of town over the Christmas holiday. My friend is (ha-ha) anal about getting every ball. Come on…they are frozen. Another thing it is much cleaner to clean right now. We had about 8 inches of snow right before Christmas and the temps show no inclination to get above freezing. In fact, it is supposed to be below zero next week:disgust:. That I am not looking forward to.

Susan