Hay/straw shed design

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Hi, this is my first post. I have a project I need to build on my own. I need help with the design. I need a storage shed for 4 round bales of hay or straw. I would like to have two bales in back and two in front. I would like the two in front to sit on a lazy susan so they could spin as I pull the layers of hay off of the bale. One bale weighs 1000 pounds. Do you think this is feasible?
 
Denise,
Welcome to the family. Anything is feasible. I bet any number of clever people on here could come up with something that would work. Do you have welding skills?
 
Welcome aboard Denise! Its a good crew here.

The lazy susan idea not really no. Possible yes but not feasible. There are really two problems with the idea, first you'd need to build a pretty darn hefty piece of kit to have a round bale rotate easily on it. More problematic imho is that the mechanism would pretty quickly get gummed up with hay.

The simplest solution is to just make the shed big enough you can get around the bale a little. You don't have to have a huge amount of clearance on the back because you can push/pull the hay from the sides.

Over engineering it just a little :D you could lay a bale on its side and put a spear (could be made from a sturdy pipe) through the center and unroll it that way. Of course you'd have to have some sort of level setup to hoist the bale up and honestly it still wouldn't turn very well because it would be unbalanced 90+% of the time (from what I've seen).

Note that old pallets work quite well to keep round bales off of the ground so keep your eyes open for a couple of those - you ought to be able to get 4 for free or close if you aren't in a hurry..
 
Thank you for the input. The bales could be 5' heigh by 4 or 5 round. No equipment to move them. We roll them. I think Ryan Mooney is right, I just need to put them on pallets with enough room to walk around and pull hay off roll.
Thanks again.
 
Welcome to the forum Denise. There are some university sites that offer free plans for farm buildings and equipment. Here is one...

http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu/extension/extpubs/PlanList97.htm#General Barn and Utility Shed Plans

As for moving large bales like that, my dad used to build some hay haulers years ago that used a come-along/winch, similar to the one below, that could allow a small tractor or car to move the bales around.

HAYBUGGY.jpg
 
You would have to decide what kind of platform to build, but I know an easy way to make it spin. I suggested how to & helped build a merry-go-round once using a front hub assembly & spindle from a car. Now days I would use a straight axle & spindle from an old trailer. We used what we already had. Put a square tube set into concrete in the floor to receive a shaft to which the spindle is attached with the hub pointed up & use the studs to mount your platform. You'll need to decide what the platform consists of it will want to be set so the top is flush with the floor.

This system made a very nice merry-go-round.
 
If your intent is to find an easy way to remove "sections" (not necessarily layers) of hay from the bale, a chain saw might work. Sit the bale on end & just cut out what you need, as you need it - might be a bit dusty & need to be careful about fires. Crazy huh? I'm having one of those days. :rolleyes:
 
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