Your hay routine from box/bag to rack.

[BinkyBunny]

 What’s your hay routine from box/bag to hayrack?

I’ll start so you get an idea of what kind of details I’m looking for: 

I have  a “SOURCE” box of hay, (around 25 + pounds of hay in a cardboard box on a shelf), stored in our garage

From that, I fill what I call the “GO TO” container that I get the daily hay from. It’s smaller cardboard box that holds about 10 days worth of hay. (sometimes I will use cloth cotton bag instead).  If I use a “GO TO” box, it sits on a shelf in a closet.  If I use a “GO TO” bag it hangs from a hook in a closet. 

I have placed a little table thing in the closet right next to the GO TO Bag or underneath the GO TO box and I fiil up the hay bin and or litterboxes from there too (as I also have a large bag full of litter in the same closet.   

For me that help keeps the hay mess to a minimum as hay can travel all over the place!

So what’s your routine and what works best for you?   Do you have a “SOURCE” box/bag and a GO TO box/bag?   Please be detailed about what container it’s stored in (plastic, cardboard, bag or box) and where it is all stored (on a shelf, on the ground, etc.). 

[Monkeybun]

I always end up with hay everywhere.. I don’t have much of a system at all. I am looking forward to seeing what everyoen else does, so I can get a good way to contain the mess. I swear my carpet is made of hay these days! lol

[Sarita]

I usually keep the hay in the box it came in and put it upstairs in the closet in the rabbit room and that works great for me. I just take the fresh litter boxes to the hay box to put the hay in.

When I add hay, I always do it when I have the vacuum cleaner out and just clean as I go any stray hay strands.

Basically I’m pretty lazy and I don’t want to take hay from one box to another – that seems so cumbersome to me. It may not work for everyone though if they don’t have the space.

[Deleted User]

I use my aluminum-sided rabbit pen which I covered with more aluminum siding for the winter as a ‘hay shed’. It’s my ‘source’ of 6 square bales which will last me for all winter at least. I get my hay from there daily as I come back from my evening dog walk which is when I feed the rabbits. I have a cardboard box that I drop off in the yard when I leave with the dog, and when I return I fill it from the hay pen and take it to my basement and transfer all the box contents into my rabbit’s large hayrack.

[Otti]

I keep hay in an open plastic tub (probably about 24 inches by 12 inches) with a cotton cloth over the top, on a shelf in a closet by Sammy’s pen.

When I change his litter box (ever other day), I put any scattered visible hay around his pen in the litter box I’m going to empty, before I throw the used litter out.

Then, after I’ve cleaned his litter box and changed his litter, I put the fresh litter box back, bring the plastic tub out of the closet and right next to the litter box, take hay out and put some in his litter box and refill up his hay rack.

I then cover the tub back up and put it in the closet. I go back and pick up any stray hay that might have escaped around the litter box or between the pen and the closet, and throw it back into the litter box. If it still looks hay-messy I’ll grab my dust buster and clean up any other strays.

It helps that the ‘hay closet’ is right by his pen.

[Chazz]

We have a crazy system. The “source” box is a 30 gallon rubbermaid container that sits inside his pen. (Weird maybe, but he really likes to sit on top of it, plus its within easy reach, less mess.) I buy hay in about 5 pound bags, there’s no way I’d have anywhere to put anything bigger.

Daily hay is taken from this box and put in a hay basket and a hanging litter box basket, both at separate ends of his pen. Because the box is in the pen I have considerable less stray pickups. About twice a week I take the leftover hay from the baskets and put them in two separate litter boxes, one under the bed and another in the living room area. He visits these areas often, so I decided to make hay available to him there. The hay here isn’t freshened every day just because he is only out and about in the mornings and evenings. He still munches on it and especially seems to enjoy having it in the living room where he can munch and keep an eye on me, just in case I might give him an apple piece

[AbbyGirl]

My system is similar to BinkyBunny’s .

I have a source box, the 50 lb box from Oxbow that I keep in our basement.

Then I have 2 go to containers. I use the Serilite 58 quart totes from Walmart. Rhinelander’s stays on the dryer in his room and Horton’s stays on the floor next to his pen in his room.

When I fill the litter boxes I either take the litterbox and hold it over the tote so the hay falls back in the tote or I make sure that the litterbox is right next to it on the floor.

This is the best way for us. I almost never find hay on the floor since I started this.

[Beka27]

I’ve done a source and go-to box in the past, but this time around I’ve just been digging out from the 50 pound box. The newest box from Oxbow is shorter and wider, so it fits better in my “dining room”… AKA bunny storage room. I detach my plastic hay box, carry that to the hay box and fill it up there.

[lashkay]

I’m lazy and seek the easiest while effective ways, and I’ve heard from the hay suppliers that stored hay has to breath so I just leave the tops of the containers the hay I have from various sources, open, on the floor of my tiny studio apartment near the pens, reach down, pick up a flake, shake it well while it’s still in the bag or carton or brown paper sack it came in to shake off all the loose strands so none will fall onto the carpet, and bring it to the bunny’s pen. Dustor’s corner enclosed litterbox he loves is kept lined only with Carefresh and is way off in the far corner and he (knock on wood) uses only that as his toilet. His enormous corner plastic litterbox I keep filed only with timothy hay is way at the front of his pen near the front gate and he loves to sit on the pile of hay and munch but keeps it all clean and won’t pee or poop on it anymore, since it’s in the separate area with where he eats his pellets from the J feeder I got from ferretdepot. Buddie was the same way. Both rabbits used to at first poop and pee on the hay when they were babies before they completely learned to use only the litterbox for that and I couldn’t tolerate the stench of the urine soaked hay so I removed it altogether and fed them their hay in bunnybale’s metal hay rack until they learned to exclusively use their carefresh to toilet, and that worked fine. After they became cemented in using their litterbox, I gave them back the haybox filled with hay and this time, they showed no interest in using it as a toilet but only to eat the hay, and lazy me can happily just add fresh hay onto Dustor’s hay pile and not have to bother with pulling out the drawer of the hay rack and pushing it back in. And I’ve come to take in stride just scooping up the hay that spills out, and either dispose of it or put it back in the haybox and still remain lazy.LOL Baby Petie I’m afraid still might soil his hay if I give him a haybox to sit in, so I got an Oxbow timothy hay tunnel which I jammed a flake of timothy hay with and he loves it, it keeps him busy, and only a little falls out around the edge of the tunnel as he pulls and eats hay from the flake inside. What my bunnies do with hay and my toilet methods for them differs from the vast majority I guess, but as I say, I’m lazy, and they’re a joy for them and a joy for me. Just some thoughts.

[MirBear]

i have frisbee’s in each of the bunnies pens, they like their “litterbox hay” more than their “frisbee hay” so i dump the remainder of the “frisbee hay” into the litter box and then bring the frisbee’s to my hay bucket (a washed out plastic cat litter bucket – pic below) put hay in them, then bring the frisbee’s filled with hay back to the cages.
 

<- i keey my hay in one of these and my food in another.. its a good easy way to keep it clean.

[jennyrabbit]

I buy a 30lbs compressed bale from the feed store and that goes in the tool room, its just sitting on an old bird cage base, I then have 3 “go to” containers since Jenny and Peepers are on different floors of the house, plus the steppe lemming use hay for bedding as opposed to shavings, so we need a hay soarce on all 3 floors of the house, we have a 5 gallon pale next to Peepers cage,m for Peepers and R2, a rubbermaid bin in Jennys room for her hay, and a little pail for D2’s hay upstairs.

[jerseygirl]

I have the bulk of the hay stored in bags like this. One bale just sit’s upright. The bags are on a table, left open and loosely covered.

  image from boingonline.com where I got the idea. They sell bags of hay like this.

I put hay from these into a grain bag and keep this inside on shelving in the laundry. I take bag to the litterbox and put hay in there. The rabbit area is tiled so I just sweep up hay when needed.

[Karla]

I have the hay in the bunny room. The bags are kept in a bed roller under the couch. When it is time for a refill, I just get one of the bags out and move over to the cage where I take the hay out and put in a hay basket in the cage. That’s it. Easy. My bags are not that big though – they last about a week or more. It does leave a little mess this way but not much.

If I am particularly lazy and not in the mood for any mess at all in the bunny room, I have a different type of hay in a plastic container that is kept under the couch as well. It is this:

A compact form of soft cut meadow hay loosly pressed into a ‘cookie.

 With this, it is so easy. I just take a ‘cookie” and put it in the hay basket in the cage. No mess at all in any way and they last longer than regular hay because it is compressed.

[Elrohwen]

I have a 50lb box of Oxbow hay that lives in the garage. I transfer hay into a small tupperware-type container (maybe 7″x9″x9″?) (it’s a larger one of these things http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=16183628&RN=204&amp that I keep in the pantry. When I had just one bunny that container was enough to last a couple days and I would store the partially full container in the pantry – now I fill it full, then transfer all of the contents of the container into the cage at once and it lasts about a day and a half, so I don’t end up storing any hay in the house at all and just use the container for transport.

I also have a larger storage bin in the garage (like this http://www.target.com/Iris-Buckle-Boxes%E2%80%93-Clear-qt/dp/B000CE9RXK/ref=br_1_13?ie=UTF8&id=Iris%20Buckle%20Boxes%E2%80%93%20Clear%20qt&node=13825601&searchSize=30&searchView=list&searchPage=1&sr=1-13&qid=1289492717&rh=&searchBinNameList=subjectbin%2Cprice%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ctarget_com_size-bin%2Ctarget_com_brand-bin&searchRank=salesrank&frombrowse=1). I used to use this to empty the smaller bags of hay into and then fill my small tupperware container out of it. I don’t really use it anymore since I get the big box, but it’s useful when the pet sitter comes over (I fill it and leave it right next to the bunny cage so she doesn’t have to look in the garage) and I’ll fill it and take it to my friend’s house when he bunny-sits. It lasts a couple weeks when full.

[LoveChaCha]

Wow Jerseygirl, I may need to steal your idea when I order Chacha’s Oat Hay. Seems so easy!

Chacha is downstairs in the living room, and in the living room is a CLOSET. I buy bagged hay and store it in the living room closet. Her hay goes into her pink IKEA hay rack (it is a grocery bag holder hahahaha), a handful into her litter box and a small bit into her cardboard box she sleeps in. At night, she comes out to play, and I lay out a blanket and put hay on there. She likes to spend her time eating hay, so I can’t complain!

Hay does end up everywhere, in my blanket especially, so I keep it downstairs do I don’t travel with it upstairs. My dad doesn’t like how hay gets everywhere (He doesn’t mind it in the living room) but I said ‘You’d rather see hay then poop, right?’

[skibunny8503]

We recently discovered a place that sells hay for around $4 and we drove up 40 min to get it. We have 2 bales right now to keep us good until after winter. We have them stored in our garage but we have a giant tubberware storage bin that we fill up and put in our basement (our garage isn’t connected to our house). We have a little container that we fill up with the hay and bring up and fill their hay racks with. We made their hay racks really high so that we can fill it to the very top and don’t have to refill it alot

[Moonlight_Wolf]

We have a bale of hay in our basement and once and a while I take hay from the basement and put it in a big black bag and bring it upstairs to the bunny room. The bag full of hay is then put in an open container next to the bunny cage and I take handfulls of that to put into their hay rack which is really close to where I store the black bag (actually right next to it). Voilla bunnies have hay.

[jerseygirl]

@ Petzy, you missed the step where you turn the cut grass hay in the field to cure, then bag it out there!

@ Brittany, “Boing” is a a house rabbit education site run by a couple in Melbourne Australia. They sell oaten hay like that but I think people have to come pick it up. I’m in a different State so I don’t get it from them. I just used the bag idea. You weren’t thinking of ordering a bag of oat hay from them were you?! Pretty sure they don’t ship to the US. lol

@ Ski, I found having bales attracts mice to keep watch for that!
 

[lwayne]

I get 25-40 pounds of hay from Kleenmama’s hay loft.  It ships in a big box that fits perfectly in the bunny room’s closet.  I leave the top of the box open.  When the box is done, it also makes an awesome bunny palace! Here’s their litterbox set up:

Their hay rack is attached to the inside top of a covered litterbox (its one of those wire paper organizers ziptied/cliped).  So to fill it, I snap off the lid and flip it over so nothing falls out and walk it over to the closet and then just stuff hay inside the hay rack.  It works out great with no mes!

Since this photo was taken, I’ve added another litterbox in front, both litterboxes fit nicely in an under the bed tupperware container which helps contain hay bits.

 

[skibunny8503]

Thanks Jersey, I’ll keep a look out for them! When we get a bigger home, I want to figure out a different place to put the hay. Hay bothers my nose sometimes and I don’t think I can handle 2 bales in the basement.

[Beka27]

Lwayne! That is such an awesome idea!

[Isabelle]

I have a plastic tub next to Dutchess’ habitat that I keep all of her stuff in (litter, bedding, hay), so I just open that up, pull up the bag of timothy hay, open her habitat, and drop down a few handfuls when she eats most what I gave her the last time. Close the habitat, close the bag, cover the plastic tub.

[b2dg3r]

 The hay routine:

Every 6 months or so I go to the feed store and buy a bale of hay. Roughly 100# for 20$. The hay goes in the back of the honda fit on a tarp. the car goes into the drive backwards and the hay is pulled with the tarp into the garage. From there they hay is loaded into a large rubbermaid containter, about a flake or two at a time. The rubbermaid goes up to my room. When the rack is empty I put the rubbermaid right up next to it and load the hay in (to minimize hay spills). I try to load enough for the whole day. When my rubbermaid is empty, I go downstairs and reload.

[Deleted User]

100 lbs of hay fit into a Honda? Really?

[b2dg3r]

 Sure does! I have to put the back seat down of course 

I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t buy a bale. My buns would go through a bag of hay in two days!

[lashkay]

I must say this is a timely thread…I just got a new hay setup, the best ever.  It’s all due to a mini-horse hay bag, two of them, one for Petie, one for Dustor.  At last a hay method that doesn’t loose hay falling out everywhere when the rabbit feeds. Just the strand he picks to eat comes out, the rest stays behind the sturdy nylon cords of the bag.  Nonetheless, the hay bag lies in their plastic hay tub (large corner litterbox) filled shallowly with nothing but hay.  Here’s a pic of Dustor going at it….

I keep the “stored” hay in the paper sacks it came in, from Binkybunny, stored upsidedown with the flaps closed near the bunnies’ pens.. When I replenish hay, I turn the sack right side up, lift a few flakes from inside, and cram the flakes into the mini horse hay bags whcih I take to the pens and tie onto the rails. I find very little stray hay escapes during the transfer from sack to bag. Reseal the flaps, turn papersack upside down and let it sit there near the pens til next time. 

[lashkay]

P.S. I shake the hay wad before I lift it out of the papersack to transfer to the mini horse hay bag, this decreases loose hay from falling out during the transfer. Once it’s in the nylon net bag, it stays put.

[Carrot Lane Bunny]

OMG!! Where did you get that nylon hay bag? I have horse friends and they have that EXACT thing for there horses! Where can I get one?
~CLB

[lashkay]

You can get the nylon hay bag at:

http://yhst-92749113215547.stores.yahoo.net/mihohaybag.html

They’re great for the common houserabbit too!

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