Icey feed

Jessey

Jessey

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
Everything has been freezing here for the last few days, even the buckets of water/soaked feed in the shed which is in the barn. I’ve never particularly worried about it but soaking hay today I got stabbed by a shard of ice, enough to draw a drop of blood. Do you worry if there’s a thin layer of ice on things?
 
I'll knock off what I can, but no I don't worry about it as long as I think they're drinking enough.
 
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I was never a fan of feeding frozen soaked sugar beet. Occasionally had ice crystals in it.

I usually just break the ice on the water, and scrap out the big shards. Funny enough the buckets of water were frozen in the sheep shed this morning and dirty with hay in them, so i naturally took them out and emptied them. Whoops, kicked myself, forget to check the hose wasnt frozen first. Ended up lugging water across the yard all the way from the tap. At least the tap wasnt frozen.
Normally i will leave the buckets with the water even if they have hay in them when icy as the hose is generally frozen.
 
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Yeah Jess and Niko are getting soaked hay at the moment so that has ice shards in, though I’m only soaking as I use it, not the night before like I was because it was frozen solid when I did that. They all get soaked grass nuts which have had a layer of ice on top, and I damp their feeds and all the water containers have ice on top, sadly no tap to get fresh water directly from. I’m going to take slightly warm water from home this morning, to try and get Hank especially to drink a bit more.
 
Havent you got electric there now, so presumably youve got a socket. Why dont you get a kettle and boil some water. I know its not drinkable for you but could you at least then give warm feed. Save you lugging water. Maybe you cant do that. Im sure youve a,ready thought of it.
 
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chunky monkey said:
Havent you got electric there now, so presumably youve got a socket. Why dont you get a kettle and boil some water. I know its not drinkable for you but could you at least then give warm feed. Save you lugging water. Maybe you cant do that. Im sure youve a,ready thought of it.
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Yep I have a gas kettle but keep meaning to buy an electric one, warm feed just seems so little in the grand scheme of things. It’s just with Hanks belly I wanted to encourage him to drink so brought water at room temp.
I’m not normally worried about things being frozen, it was just stabbing myself made me wonder.
 
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I have had to bring the sugar beet up to the house and put it on top of the aga to thaw out. We had no water yesterday at the yard, lugged around 30 buckets down from the house by hand then when i went down to do evening stables, the supply was on, so i filled up both wheelie bins a bucket at a time and a dustbin and did the same this morning. Took three of the stubbs big containers which had hay in them and filled them with water so at least we had a bit more available in case it hadn't defrosted last night. The tap i can get a hose on was still frozen as it is at the end of the run for the automatic water and it was still out so had to do it all by hand. Had an audience of donkeys watching me lug it all as they stood eating. I have a burco boiler so keep it topped up and can use it to boil some water to poor over taps etc. Managed to pour it over my hand last night scalding hot it was too.
 
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Im really lucky at the moment the boys are fenced at the bottom of the field with a continuous flow of running water.

Ive stopped using my top fenced area currently, that would have been a nightmare as the water pipe goes surface 100 metres across the field. I wouldnt have had any water for the last couple of weeks.
 
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I got told off for still soaking hay, was told icey hay gives horses colic and toxic shock! (I actually phoned the vets to check as was a bit worried - poppycock apparently, frozen water and dehydration may be the colic culprit in bad weather). Anyhow, yes I feed soaked hay that has ice on it, or snow as I figure that by the time it's reached piggy's gut any ice/snow will have thawed. I think if they can manage to scoff brambles and hawthorn without stabbing themselves a bit of ice shouldn't hurt.
 
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Jane&Ziggy said:
I carry 2 x 2l milk bottles of hot water over every morning to make Mattie's porridge. He does prefer it warm.

Charlie doesn't seem to care one way or the other!
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When it hit -17 during the beast from the east I did take my mob some warm speedibeet, Jess went positively potty for it but the little boys didn’t seem any more excited than normal ??‍♀️
 
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