A hay hood is a roof extension which projects from the ridge of a barn roof, usually at the top of a gable. 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, where it is called a hay cupola. Most gambrel roofed 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 Reasnor is a city in Jasper County, Iowa, United States. The population was 152 at the time of the 2020 census. History Reasnor was platted in the summer of 1877, and named for its founders, Samuel and Mary Reasoner. Geography Reasnor is locate ...

, 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

sparrow Sparrow may refer to: Birds * Old World sparrows, family Passeridae * New World sparrows, family Passerellidae * two species in the Passerine family Estrildidae: ** Java sparrow ** Timor sparrow * Hedge sparrow, also known as the dunnock or hedg ...

s and pigeons 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 grist mill with a single main roof and catsheads at each end vaguely resembles a cat'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 rigs used to shift multi-ton milling equipment and the simple wheel pulleys 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) 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 The Richard S. Irwin Barn, also referred to as Cheadle Barn, is a historic agricultural building located in rural Benton County, Oregon, United States.. The barn was purchased by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1965, and is part of ...

in Benton County, Oregon, U.S., listed on the National Register of Historic Places 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 File:Sparrow_proof_hay_hood.jpg , Bottom-doored hay hood in

, U.S. File:Virginia Tillery Round Barn.jpg, Hay hood on a round barn ( Virginia Tillery Round Barn in Greene County, Illinois)

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