A bale handle?

[BarnyardEngineering]

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand I wish I'd thought of it myself. Million dollar idea. On the other hand, I want to make fun of the wusses that would use such a device.

For the imagination-challenged, it's a handle for carrying small square bales. You slip the strings over the hooks and then lift with the big plastic handle so the strings don't cut into your tender widdle fingees.

 

[cleddy]

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand I wish I'd thought of it myself. Million dollar idea. On the other hand, I want to make fun of the wusses that would use such a device.

View attachment 5709
For the imagination-challenged, it's a handle for carrying small square bales. You slip the strings over the hooks and then lift with the big plastic handle so the strings don't cut into your tender widdle fingees.

We had something like that back in the day. We called it a "Hay Hook" and almost like a special hand for some people? A real necessity if you were on the rack pulling bales off the baler and stacking. We even had a variaty of sizes ,Long ones, Basic everyday size. and if you were lucky a nice store bought red one with a comfortable wood handle. You were an Accomplished hay stacker when you got one of those??? Ah the good old days -before you needed pills to keep your heart going??

 

[RESLLS]

You could have the bale where it needs to in the time it takes to hook and unhook the twine!

 

[Brown David]

We had something like that back in the day. We called it a "Hay Hook" and almost like a special hand for some people? A real necessity if you were on the rack pulling bales off the baler and stacking. We even had a variaty of sizes ,Long ones, Basic everyday size. and if you were lucky a nice store bought red one with a comfortable wood handle. You were an Accomplished hay stacker when you got one of those??? Ah the good old days -before you needed pills to keep your heart going??

You're talking about these I presume? We called them bale hooks here.



That bale handle might be handy if you had two, one for each hand.

Would be helpful if you had to carry bales any distance I suppose, two at a time gets you done quicker.

I don't know though, you could just grab a bale in each hand by the strings and go.

So yeah, on proper reflection, it's probably just a nice, shiny, gimmick that really isn't all that useful to anyone used to handling bales of hay.

 

[DanielW]

Does no one use bale forks anymore? Short (48" or so) pitch forks with shorter (maybe 6" long) tines? They take a little more arm muscle to manhandle bales effectively, and you have to get good at knowing where to dig them in to lift the bale. But once you get used to one, you'll never grab a bale by the twines again. Using a fork allows you to really pitch bales high & far, and you're not touching the twine at all so there's no risk of accidentally pulling it apart.

I very rarely see anyone else using one however. Don't know why. With a fork I can easily toss bales up to the top layer of a loaded wagon with 4 or 5 layers on it already. I don't think I could do that without a fork (or if I could, I wouldn't want to do very many).

 

[Brown David]

Does no one use bale forks anymore? Short (48" or so) pitch forks with shorter (maybe 6" long) tines? They take a little more arm muscle to manhandle bales effectively, and you have to get good at knowing where to dig them in to lift the bale. But once you get used to one, you'll never grab a bale by the twines again. Using a fork allows you to really pitch bales high & far, and you're not touching the twine at all so there's no risk of accidentally pulling it apart.

I very rarely see anyone else using one however. Don't know why. With a fork I can easily toss bales up to the top layer of a loaded wagon with 4 or 5 layers on it already. I don't think I could do that without a fork (or if I could, I wouldn't want to do very many).

I've never used a fork myself but have seen others use one loading wagons. I was usually on the wagon building the loads.

It's been 40 years or so since I've handled hay bales, don't miss anything about it really.

 

[paul]

Never seen a bale fork in operation. I’ve seen them mentioned here before. Probably more used to pick up off the ground, most folk here had a person or two on the rack stacking behind the baler, or a bale thrower. Very little hay around here ever was on the ground.

I use a pair of bale hooks all the time. I can use my thigh as the push to swing a bale up 4-5 high. The hooks just make that so much easier. Also to grab and sort a bale from where ever it is, stack, pile, off the bale chute.

Rarely I will handle bales by the twine, but it’s generally a bad experience. Twine breaks, fingers get sore, blusters by 100 bales. Can’t swing the bales right to handle fast and easy, gloves get pinched and come off my hands. If it’s over 30 bales I just hate trying to handle by the twine. Bad day if I have to.

That little plastic thing looks good for the 30-60 bale folk, picking up bales off the ground and carrying to a wagon. It looks like those tabs would wear off in less than a season for a ‘real’ hay farmer. But as you say, wish I had come up with the patent, it probably has its place with the right set of hobby farm type. Neat.

Paul

 

[SkipperII]

A lot the the bales I bucked as a kid, were wire tied. You needed bale hooks, or darn good gloves, or you could really tear you hands up.

 

[DoubleO7]

That bale handle is undoubtedly aimed at the pleasure horse and hobbyist farm types.

I don't see an 89 pound, 13 year old girl using a hay fork to feed her horsey.

But Daddy will buy that handle if it will get her to take care of her horse her own self.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Does no one use bale forks anymore? Short (48" or so) pitch forks with shorter (maybe 6" long) tines? They take a little more arm muscle to manhandle bales effectively, and you have to get good at knowing where to dig them in to lift the bale. But once you get used to one, you'll never grab a bale by the twines again. Using a fork allows you to really pitch bales high & far, and you're not touching the twine at all so there's no risk of accidentally pulling it apart.

I very rarely see anyone else using one however. Don't know why. With a fork I can easily toss bales up to the top layer of a loaded wagon with 4 or 5 layers on it already. I don't think I could do that without a fork (or if I could, I wouldn't want to do very many).

Either your bales were very light or I really really would not want to meet you in a dark alley.

To be fair, I have heard stories of old timers who handled baled hay with a pitchfork. You didn't want to mess with them either. They walked with a cane, but could stand on a wagon and sling 40lb bales around with a pitchfork. If they got their mitts on you, I'm sure you'd know.

"A little more arm muscle" is the understatement of 2024. Takes somewhere between 2x and 3x the force to move that bale of hay out on the end of a 48" fork than it does at your hands.

 

[rustred]

it would probably be ok for carrying a bale or even 1 in each hand on them tight heavy bales if you need to run over to the barn or something like that. but if a person had to use that thing for stacking bales it would be a lot of swearing and hurry upping and really slow the job down , be good for government workers. that could easily be made also from a barn door handle and some plywood.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

We had something like that back in the day. We called it a "Hay Hook" and almost like a special hand for some people? A real necessity if you were on the rack pulling bales off the baler and stacking. We even had a variaty of sizes ,Long ones, Basic everyday size. and if you were lucky a nice store bought red one with a comfortable wood handle. You were an Accomplished hay stacker when you got one of those??? Ah the good old days -before you needed pills to keep your heart going??

We accumulated several hay hooks over the years. Never used them much. Getting them to release the bale was awkward, and then there was the jabbing yourself in the kneecap (Don't ask me how, all I know is how much it hurt).

 

[plattman]

Used to use a pitchfork to load the small round bales from a rotobaler. Used 2 bale hooks to pull bales from the baler chute and stack on the wagons.

 

[Loosehandle]

Does no one use bale forks anymore? Short (48" or so) pitch forks with shorter (maybe 6" long) tines? They take a little more arm muscle to manhandle bales effectively, and you have to get good at knowing where to dig them in to lift the bale. But once you get used to one, you'll never grab a bale by the twines again. Using a fork allows you to really pitch bales high & far, and you're not touching the twine at all so there's no risk of accidentally pulling it apart.

I very rarely see anyone else using one however. Don't know why. With a fork I can easily toss bales up to the top layer of a loaded wagon with 4 or 5 layers on it already. I don't think I could do that without a fork (or if I could, I wouldn't want to do very many).

My shoulders are already shot from handling bales using the twine method.

 

[chcase]

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand I wish I'd thought of it myself. Million dollar idea. On the other hand, I want to make fun of the wusses that would use such a device.

View attachment 5709
For the imagination-challenged, it's a handle for carrying small square bales. You slip the strings over the hooks and then lift with the big plastic handle so the strings don't cut into your tender widdle fingees.

I would agree it works for some people. My dad made one about like it for my girl friend (now wife) She used it one day and said it wasn't for her. Much easier on back using both arms. Picking up hay. The hay fork worked great when I was young.

 

[stevieb49829]

My shoulders are already shot from handling bales using the twine method.

Mine hurt just reading this discussion!!

 

[Janicholson]

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand I wish I'd thought of it myself. Million dollar idea. On the other hand, I want to make fun of the wusses that would use such a device.

View attachment 5709
For the imagination-challenged, it's a handle for carrying small square bales. You slip the strings over the hooks and then lift with the big plastic handle so the strings don't cut into your tender widdle fingees.

Bale Hooks were a reality for me and I still have my favorite hanging in plain sight in my garage. The two I show are good and desirable because they allow solid placement and good release. The round handle one is the favored, the oval handled is next. I do not use a "D" handled Hook they can get turned upward and or bounce up and fail to hook they also do not release with clean action. The plastic "device" shown is just too weird. Jim

 

[stoughtonfarmboy]

Used to use a pitchfork to load the small round bales from a rotobaler. Used 2 bale hooks to pull bales from the baler chute and stack on the wagons.

For reasons not clear to me, my father-in-law used an Allis Chalmers rotobaler in the 1980s. Produced mostly "ice cream cones". Even the correctly shaped bales were miserable to handle and try to stack in the mow. South Central Wisconsin


Ken

 

[showcrop]

Does no one use bale forks anymore? Short (48" or so) pitch forks with shorter (maybe 6" long) tines? They take a little more arm muscle to manhandle bales effectively, and you have to get good at knowing where to dig them in to lift the bale. But once you get used to one, you'll never grab a bale by the twines again. Using a fork allows you to really pitch bales high & far, and you're not touching the twine at all so there's no risk of accidentally pulling it apart.

I very rarely see anyone else using one however. Don't know why. With a fork I can easily toss bales up to the top layer of a loaded wagon with 4 or 5 layers on it already. I don't think I could do that without a fork (or if I could, I wouldn't want to do very many).

These days they have rigs that you can attach to the back of your baler to do that for ya while you stay in the seat!

 

[olddavid]

For reasons not clear to me, my father-in-law used an Allis Chalmers rotobaler in the 1980s. Produced mostly "ice cream cones". Even the correctly shaped bales were miserable to handle and try to stack in the mow. South Central Wisconsin


Ken

Actually, the old Roto Balers were a good idea. Not as fast a square baler but you had two windrows to the square baler's one which kind of offset it. If you raked it right and drove the baler right you didn't get many of the cone shaped ones. Another plus, you could leave them out in the field and the hay would stay good inside. You needed a hay hook to haul those bales. I actually preferred handling the round ones to the square ones. Janicholson is right about the "T" handle being better than the "D" handle. Lots easier to get your leg instead of the bale with the "D" handle and getting them unhooked with a high throw was difficult. Some of the "D" handles had an oval shaped handle which helped.