[little blue]

By building your own hay steamer... yes, I have pinched this idea and thought Id share it with you!
Take an old refrigerato rand lay it on its back,
drill a hole between the freezer compartment and the fridge,
Get a wall paper steamer (Get one on freecycle!!) that comes with a hose on it and
Put in the freezer compartment, fed the hose through to the fridge portion ( line with heavy black plastic first)
place a rack in the fridge to raise the hay so the steam can penetrate it better, place your hay on the rack (may get 1/2 a bale in it if its a big enough fridge!)
lay a sheet of plastic over the hay - making sure the plastic overlaps all sides of the fridge door once it is closed.
Place a few heavy blocks on the door to make it seal tightly so no steam excapes.
steam the hay for 80 minutes
Apparentlythe temp ca reach over 120F.
You can put your steamer on a timer if you don't trust yourself to remember to watch it so it doesn't run out of water.

You can also adapt a big barrel or water butt, bur they're not as well insulated.

Perfect for horses with laminitus or dust allergies, and supposed not to loose any nutrients
 

[doganjo]

Glad you added that last line - couldn't think why anyone would want to steam hay when it smells so nice when its bone dry.

[Roxy]

Hay steamers are really expensive - in fact I do not know anyone who actually owns one ......!!!!

I use old hay for our smallest pony, and soak it for 3o minutes in a tub of water.  The vet said that this amount of time was plenty to get rid of the dust. Our pet sheep shares the stable, and he will not eat the soaked hay, so has to have a little pile of dry hay instead.

[Rosemary]

I'm trying to get our YO to buy in oat straw for Smokey and the other fatties.

[Roxy]

I would like some pea straw for the goats to help with the hay ration, but no straw is made round here, and definitely no chance of pea straw.  I saw some goats at a couple of shows this summer tucking into some ......and I looked enviously at it!!!