A hay hood is a roof extension which projects from the ridge of a

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. ...

roof, usually at the top of a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

. It provides shelter over a window or door used for passing hay into the attic or loft of the barn; it may hold a pulley for hoisting hay or

hay bale Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticated ...

s up to the loft, or a fork or grapple and track system (or hay carrier) where hay can be lifted and then moved throughout the barn. A barn may have the ridge beam extended past the wall with a lifting mechanism but no hay hood. This simplest hay hood includes a tapered roof extension providing some protection from the weather. A non-tapered extension provides more protection. A hay hood with partial or full walls underneath the extension on two sides is more protective, while an extension with three sides, allowing hay to be brought into the barn only through its "floor" keeps virtually all rain or snow out of the barn. A hay hood can be built on a barn with any roof type. The type of hood is generally determined by the weather of a particular region. A barn in a semi-arid region may have no hood or just a simple pointed one. A barn in a region with frequent driving rain may have a completely enclosed hay hood. This is common in an area of western Oregon in the United States, centered on the town of Monroe in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...

, where it is called a hay cupola. Most

gambrel roof A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. (The usual architectural term in eighteenth-century England and North America was "Dutch roof".) The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, w ...

ed barns in the western U.S. have pointed hay hoods. Hay hoods have been built on

round barn A round barn is a historic barn design that could be octagonal, polygonal, or circular in plan. Though round barns were not as popular as some other barn designs, their unique shape makes them noticeable. The years from 1880 to 1920 represent th ...

s. It may also be known as a hay bonnet, hay gable, widow's peak, crow's beak, or hanging gable. To prevent small gaps around the closed doors at the beam penetration that would allow birds to enter the barn, one farmer in Reasnor, Iowa, designed a hay hood with a "bunker door" that when closed, was an angled floor on the hay hood, completely enclosing the hood and keeping birds such as sparrows and

pigeon Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

s out of the barn.

Other uses

A little catshead (alternatively cat's head or cats head) is an architectural feature commonly found on multi-storied mills, agricultural buildings, and factories, composed of a small extension protruding from the

gable end A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

of a larger

roof A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temper ...

. A

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

with a single main roof and catsheads at each end vaguely resembles a

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

's head in sillohuette, with the catsheads forming the "ears" of the imaginary feline; this may be the origin of the name. Catsheads originally existed to protect the ropes and pulleys associated with lifting equipment (such as the

block and tackle A block and tackle or only tackle is a system of two or more pulleys with a rope or cable threaded between them, usually used to lift heavy loads. The pulleys are assembled to form blocks and then blocks are paired so that one is fixed and one ...

rigs used to shift multi-ton milling equipment and the simple wheel

pulleys A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction of a taut cable or belt, or transfer of power between the shaft and cable or belt. In the case of a pulley supported by a frame or shell that d ...

used to lift

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food g ...

into haylofts) from ice and the corrosion caused by rain. In driest climates, if they had an opening to the building which lacked a door or window, this may have been adequate to prevent the goods from deteriorating. Adding the protective catshead to the gable end of a roofline makes roofing tasks such as taking and removing tiles/panels simpler, and was an economy as obviates the

flashing (weatherproofing) Flashing refers to thin pieces of impervious material installed to prevent the passage of water into a structure from a joint or as part of a weather resistant barrier system. In modern buildings, flashing is intended to decrease water penetration ...

of a completely separate roof. Whimsical architectural styles (such as

New World Queen Anne Revival architecture In the New World, Queen Anne Revival was a historicist architectural style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was popular in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries. In Australia, it is also called Federation archit ...

) may also sport catsheads as non-functional decorative features.

Gallery

File:Cheadle Barn hay hood - Finley NWR Oregon.jpg, Fully enclosed hay hood on the Cheadle Barn in

Benton County, Oregon Benton County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 95,184. Its county seat is Corvallis. The county was named after Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S. Senator who advocated American contr ...

, U.S., listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

File:Leidiingshof (Scheune).jpg , Fully enclosed hay hood on a barn in

Heiligenstadt in Oberfranken Heiligenstadt in Oberfranken (officially: Heiligenstadt i. OFr.) is a community with market rights in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg. The town clusters round the base of Schloss Greifenstein. To further tourism the old school was con ...

Upper Franconia, Bavaria Upper Franconia (german: Oberfranken) is a ''Regierungsbezirk'' (administrative 'Regierungs''region 'bezirk'' of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia, the others being Middle F ...

, Germany File:Alberta barn July 2011.jpg , Pointed hay hood on a round-roofed barn in

Alberta, Canada Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to t ...

File:Sparrow_proof_hay_hood.jpg , Bottom-doored hay hood in Reasnor, Iowa, U.S. File:Virginia Tillery Round Barn.jpg, Hay hood on a round barn (

Virginia Tillery Round Barn The Virginia Tillery Round Barn is a round barn located on County Route 738 west of White Hall in Greene County, Illinois. The barn was built in the fall of 1912 for farmer Harry C. Price. With a diameter, the barn is relatively small for an Illi ...

Greene County, Illinois Greene County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 United States Census, it has a population of 11,843. Its county seat is Carrollton. A notable archaeological area, the Koster Site, has produced evidence of ...

)

Notes

References

{{reflist , refs= {{cite journal , last=Francaviglia , first=Richard V. , title=Western American Barns: Architectural Form and Climatic Considerations. , journal=Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers , volume=3 4, year=1972 , pages=153–60 , doi=10.1353/pcg.1972.0010 , jstor=24041292 , s2cid=128474828 , url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24041292 , access-date=April 23, 2022 {{cite book , author = Cyril M. Harris , date = 1998 , title = American Architecture: An Illustrated Encyclopedia , publisher = W. W. Norton & Company , isbn = 978-0-393-73103-3 , oclc = 1005157692 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=G6bwEDoS6dAC , page=169 {{cite web , url=https://www.hobbyfarms.com/old-barns-in-america-a-field-guide/ , website=hobbyfarms.com, title=Old Barns in America: A Field Guide , last=Johnson , first=Samantha , date=June 10, 2019 , access-date=April 23, 2022 {{cite news , title=Sparrow-proof dairy barn , access-date=April 23, 2022 , work=The Des Moines Register , date=February 6, 1949 , location=Des Moines, Iowa , page=115 , url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100344952/the-des-moines-register/ , via=

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

{{free access {{cite web, url={{NRHP url, id=03000996, title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: Ojo Caliente Hot Springs Round Barn, author=David Kammer, date=August 2003, publisher=

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

, accessdate=December 7, 2016 with {{NRHP url, id=03000996, photos=y, title=four photos Architectural elements *