Need hay bag recommendations

[OzarksRider]

I’m looking for a slow feed hay bag to put in my horses’ stalls. What brand do you use, and what do you like/dislike about it? Has anybody tried the Slow-feed Hay Play bags from GG Equine (https://www.gg-equine.com/products/slow-feed-hay-bags )?

For years I fed my horses good quality bluestem hay, which they liked but not so much that they would overeat. I could put out hay and always have some left in the morning. I can no longer get that, so now they’re eating Wrangler bermuda which they LOVE so much that they stuff themselves and then have nothing left for the night, so I’m thinking a slow feed hay bag might help.

[trubandloki]

I have never seen that model of hay bag before. How interesting. Looking forward to reading if anyone has used it.

I use many various brands of small hole hay net. The really small holes for one horse and the average small holes for the other.
I don’t find one brand to be totally amazing over another.

I will not buy from Hay Chix again. I had a bad customer service experience with them and I do not find their nets last any longer than any other (cheaper) nets do.

[Simkie]

I use the shires nets, and have for years. They fit an entire bale easily, are inexpensive, and hold up well.

HAYLAGE NET | Shires Equestrian Inc

(The 50" version)

Every now and then I look around at alternatives and get wrapped around the axle on all the options and how much they cost.

The bag you’ve linked probably won’t slow your horses down. The holes are too large to limit access. 2" may not even slow them down, depending on how eager they are. For smaller holes, I go with the this one:

GREEDY FEEDER NET | Shires Equestrian Inc

[fourfillies]

I use a slow feed hay net with 1” for my hay hoover. It holds almost 1/2 a bale if I need to overstuff it for a long rainy day/overnight.

[trubandloki]

I can second this net is amazing. This is what most of my nets are.

[Jarpur]

I used the Shires nets for years (along with other brands of that general type), which worked well for the intended purpose and the Shires are found at a good price (very affordable to have several on hand). However, my hands (which are quite small) eventually complained mightily at filling the nets, even though I used the trick of placing the empty net in a muck bucket and pulling the bag opening over the top of the bucket to hold the net open for filling. The repetitive stress eventually became painful, which led me to find an alternative, even if that meant some wasted hay.

Switched to the type that are composed of a grid of strapping that results in square holes. I’ve purchased a couple different brands, intentionally buying the style that has openings all over (front, back, sides, bottom) so that the horses can still eat even if the bags get twisted or flipped. They’re very easy to fill, which is great for my hands, but leak hay like a sieve. It might be better not to have the webbing on all sides, which would also be less expensive, or get the model with smaller openings (I’ve got 1.5 and 2.0 inch, the smaller size wastes less but costs more).

[trubandloki]

@Jarpur, do you mean this style ?

I know I am weird, but I find this style much harder to fill than a standard hay net (using a muck bucket).

Which is my way of saying to the OP, you are likely going to have to try things to see what your horse and you like best.

[luvmyhackney]

I use the same nets as @Simkie. They work amazing.

[Heinz_57]

Another user of the Shires Haylage nets, although I prefer the medium size.

[Jarpur]

I did start out purchasing a couple of those, but you’re right, they’re hard to fill. The much easier to fill ones have sides, making them more of a cube, like these:

https://www.derbyoriginals.com/collections/super-tough-bottom-hay-bags

[Foxglove]

I have used bale size 1" hay nets for 10 years or so. Put in a bale, hang in stall, all good for a few days. Never had a problem. I bought from Cinch Chicks.

[suzyq]

I use nibblenets. I like the ones that have holes on both sides.

NibbleNet ®

[FjordBCRF]

I have a hay sucking fjord and have had the best success with Hay Chix 1" extreme slow feed nets. I have two half bale ones and one full bale for when we go anywhere overnight. They are expensive, the shipping is stupid expensive with an insanely high minimum for free shipping, and they are slow…but they work to actually slow him down and hold up really well.

The new GG bags just came out a couple weeks ago. The size of those holes wouldn’t slow my guy down much if at all. We also tried the portagrazer but even with the smallest hole pan, it barely slowed him down. And he cracked two of the pans. Their customer service wasn’t great about that and just blamed me/the type of hay/how it was filled. There were two other horses in the barn that had them for years, same hay, same filling…my guy is just hard on them which they didn’t want to acknowledge.

[FitToBeTied]

@suzyq

I use nibblenets. I like the ones that have holes on both sides.

ThinAirCanvas

NibbleNet ®

ThinAirCanvas

We use these in the stalls, in the run in sheds and in the trailer. Great nets with high durability.

[Rulu]

I have a couple of these that I have used for so long, I’m not sure which decade I bought them in. They’re very easy for me to put flakes in.

Busy Horse Extra Slow

[Jarpur]

I used to have one of those many years ago – liked it enough that I tried to order more, but they were indefinitely backordered (back then). I ended up going a different way eventually but, yes, I liked them and remember them as easy enough to load.

[Pico_Banana]

On the Shires ones, how big is the opening? Can you actually lay it over a muck bucket?

I have several different kinds of nets. For my always starved yet always on a diet horse, I use the Hay Chix 1 inch hole nets. I have a bunch of the mini nets, which I usually fill with 1 flake, for about 4-5 lbs of hay. She gets one of those for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then I have a few of the half bale nets, which I fill with 3-4 flakes, for about 10 lbs hay, which she gets at night check.

For my “I don’t need a slow feeder but I prefer to eat from a net” horses (i.e., the other two), I just use the SmarkPak small hole hay nets. You can get them really cheap on clearance, especially if you have a coupon, too. Like I think I paid about $5 a piece for them.

I have a bunch of the webbed square ones from SmartPak. When I first started using nets, I liked those more, but now I find the net ones easier to use and wrangle.

[Kindred_Spirit]

@Rulu

I have a couple of these that I have used for so long, I’m not sure which decade I bought them in. They’re very easy for me to put flakes in.

Busy Horse Extra Slow

I second the Busy Horse bags. They’re very fast and easy to load and hold up well. All of our horses have one and they’re all years old - the oldest is probably 10 or more years old and the only thing wrong with it is that the rings broke off so I used twine instead.

[Simkie]

@Pico_Banana

On the Shires ones, how big is the opening? Can you actually lay it over a muck bucket?

Sure. Although I far prefer to stand a bale on end, and pull the net down over it. I don’t find them at all difficult to fill.

[Weezer]

I love the Bale Buddy nets because they don’t have a drawstring for horse legs the get wrapped up in. The closure system they have works well, but I wish it wasn’t white because I tend to loose them in the snow.