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Who on here remembers using hay forks?

F

farmerjohn

Well-known Member
We always called them hay forks but I guess they have other names. I never saw one being used, this one hung from the peak of the barn ever since I have been alive. Now the barn is being torn down and I managed to take it all down except the track. How did they ever get it up there?!!! I used the full length of a 32 foot ladder to reach it from the mow floor.

Barn is 118 years old, needs new roof, foundation, original boards falling off, ground floor is a swamp, and is located 15 feet from the property line of a sometimes hostile neighbor, my brother doesn't want to put the money into it.
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There is one of those in the old barn in our farm across the road. Never knew how it worked. The barn is still in good shape, the track and pulley setup is still up in the peak. The rope used to hang down from it, but it deteriorated and most of it fell off quite a few years ago. The "forks" are setting by the back wall, been there forever. Thought about scrapping them out, they will never be used.
 
Had/have similar setup in the original horse/hay barn that was later converted to a corn crib for ear corn used to feed hogs. When I was a kid, dad used the D17 to pull hay up in the old barn a few times. A couple more pulleys on the other side of the barn that routed the rope back down and straight out to hook to the tractor. We could get 6 square bales each lift. One year we fixed up the old dump rake and did a couple acres of loose hay. I rode the dump rake behind the D17 then we pitched on a flat wagon Pulling up loose hay with the forks was a LOT more work than the squares. Needless to say we didn't do that again, lol. Dump rake is now a yard ornament a the old farmhouse. Mike
 
I worked for a guy that set the hooks in 4 small bales on the hay rack, and paid me $3.50 an hour to drive the tractor. I pulled the hay up and back to the end of the feed bunks,and then he tripped the forks and I backed up and he pulled the mt forks back. My regular job was at the gas station for .50 an hour at night. Good money in the late sixty's.
 
My great uncle who lives next door to me used that exact setup into the late 1980's. I can faintly remember driving the team of horses to pull the loads into the mow. He farmed exclusively with horses at that point. Wasn't until about 1990 that he finally bought an Allis WD and a roto baler. Still cut and raked with horses up until about 2010.
 
Yep, thaT'S THE STYLE OF FORKS WE USED. I have them sand-blasted and hanging in the barn now. If you get too carried away, and stomp the forks right down into the hay too far, and are using a Massey Harris Pony tractor to pull the hay up, you can hook into the floor of the hay wagon and hoist that thing right up in the air! BTDT.
 
We called them grapple forks. By the time I was around we used them to pick up eight bales at a time. The bales had to be stacked in a certain pattern on the hay rack.
 
We used a hay carrier with double chain slings to put AC roto bales into the barn. 5 bales on the bottom, then 4, 3, 2, 1...for a total of 15 per sling. 4 slings on a hayrack with foot high sides. I was 8yo when the new barn was built, don"t remember how they put up the hay carrier track, but maybe it was done when the rafters were up, but not yet covered with roof boards. I do remember that they started with roof boards at the bottom and worked their way up. I have pics on Photoshop of the barn being built, but can"t post them here anymore. I have in the past.
 
I very well remember using hay forks. I used to pull off with the old 35 Ford pickup with the rope raped around the front bumper. Back up until the old msn hollered whoa and then maybe go a little farther back and listen to him really holler whoa Didn't ever try it the third time LOL
 
We used hooks just like the picture before getting an elevator. Pretty sure the hooks picked up a dozen bales in 2 layers. I thought I was smart stacking 8 more bales with straw on top of the dozen. Dad was always in the mow and said he "was concerned about the track". Now it seems to me like a wonder the load didnt' tear down the track. Dad should have said NO, don't do that! Like someone said, I wonder how the track was put up.
 
I used them when I was real young over at the neighbors helping them put hay & straw in a barn that is still standing. That was probably 56 or 57 years ago.
 
When small, I drove the nearly new 8N in reverse pulling the rope to lift the hay into the mow at my uncles farm in Iowa.

He had an apparatus that lifted several square bales at once.

We used an elevator at our place.

I saved the carriage, pulleys, rope, and one section of track after hurricane Ike collapsed my hay barn.

Dean
 
id likely be the youngest member to actually use one (46 yo). Operated the forks, with one horse. Mostly a buggy horse, pulling the forks was about the only farm work I ever saw him do. Fed hay with a slide,and a pair of mules til about'89 or possibly '90. I can't remember. I like the old ways, and I hate to see them pass by, but I couldn't go back. Too easy, and efficient to handle rolls
 
Remember dad using hay forks like you show in the picture. The hay field was next to the barn and dad had his CC Case pushing this set of fork full of hay right up to the front of barn. For a little boy loved the fine dirt it made. Had a bigger barn with hay forks, but do not remember filling it.
 
Yep, on the place I now live (for the past 48 yrs) when I was very young, remember being with Dad here who was helping the neighbor put alfalfa small square bales in the loft with a hay fork. Pulled the bales up in the loft with a MM model U tractor. The barn is gone now as it was in very sad shape when I moved here so it was torn down a few years later and a new Morton livestock building put up on the same site.
 
Driving the '51 M pulling the rope for the hay fork was the only work Mom ever did, till I was about 5-6 years old when I took over. Only used the fork for about a year or two longer and only in the back barn. Fork took 8 bales, two layers of four. Had to be careful a bale or the whole lift didn't fall back on the rack. Neighbor would send the extra bales over 72 per load back to the field when they were right there at the barn! There was track and a carriage in the front barn but no rope so we borrowed the neighbor's Kewanee elevator when we put hay or straw in front barn.

Was about 1961-'62 when Dad bought a Deere 40 ft bale elevator, put 8 ft more into it and our little baling crew had an elevator.

Some barns and carriages used a wood beam for a track, later carriages used a steel track.
 
We called ours tongs. They were half-inch round stock, not flat as shown. I've often wondered what happened to them.
 
My mom helped on the farm. She says her brother drove the doodlebug to lift the hay and grandpa and her were in the mow with forks to spread the loose hay. They never had a baler since my grandfather had heart trouble at an early age the doctor told him no more shoveling manure, he switched to raising sheep then chickens and lived to a ripe old age.
 

My first job was driving the tractor to pull the fork up either with 8 square bales or six depending on the barn where we were offloading. We put up 15,000 per year for first 25 years of my life. I graduated to loading the fork as I grew older. Easy fast way to unload hay but am bi...ch to get out.
 
We have the FE Meyers brand hay forks in our barn as well. This barn was built in 1950 to replace the previous one hit by lightening (God's hand in keeping Grandpa from sending Dad off to Seminary in Saginaw to begin studying for the ministry). They made loose hay with hay loaders in the field and the forks to pull them into the barn. By the time I came along, the neighbor had a Ford baler with motor he pulled with a war-surplus Jeep. We pulled up eight bales at a time. I started as tractor driver, using the MI to pull them up, Dad stuck the loads and Grandpa shoved them around in mow until Dad could get up and help stack. When I got old enough to learn how to stick loads, my older cousin showed me how you could stick a load, pull them up, trip them from below, climb up and stack them, then slide down the rope onto the load to stick the next!

We used them into the 1990s, when the trolley started to drop off at random times (something must be worn out). I found a barn-length tube elevator system and 25 foot elevator from the wagon up to the mow, and have been handling every bale by myself for the last few years.
 
I used them with my dad, in 1946-7. Before we used long rope slings-this all on loose hay. The grapple forks worked on bales but you had to limit the load for fear of bringing down the track. While loading the loose hay for slings one had to judge when the wagon was full enough for a sling load, then stop loading and take a pair of rope slings hanging on the "standard" (ladder on the wagon front) and lay them out about a half wagon width apart, leaving the steel eyelet ends droop off each end. Usually three sets. When hooking the ends up to the carrier, you did not want to include a hay rack (wagon) board! lol Leo
 
That's looks like a beautiful Pennsylvania barn, sad to hear it will be taken down. Where are you located? Is there any chestnut wood?
Jim B
 
We used a 2 tine version thru 1958 for loose hay. Got the first baler in 1959 and switched to a 4 tine fork to take off 10 bales at a time. Used that thru 1967, then went to an elevator.
 
Yep, we used that style. The neighbor baled round smalls with an AC roto-baler. We had a different style of forks that we used on those.

Filled our three barns, neighbors two barns and large stacks outside. It didn't matter what tractor pulled the bales up to the mow, it was always called the hay horse while on duty.

Normally 8 bales at a time, unless Dad was in a hurry, then it was 12 at a time.

Good times!

Larry
 
I still have a set of those hay tongs. I have used them on occasion to pull hay out of a round baler when it was made to big and would not come out of the chamber. I have worked unloading hay into a mow with hay forks but not with hay tongs. We always used a hay elevator for square bales.
 
Used the 2 fork model with both horses and tractor. Had to be careful not to hook the hay rack on the wagon or you could pull the end out of the barn! Horses learned quick, pull fast and hard and about half way to the house the load got real light. We didn't have a ladder long enough to reach the car to reverse it to the other side of the barn. Remember my Uncle working on the top rung of a straight up extension ladder that was bounding from side to side about 5 feet. That was when I developed a fear of heights!
 
I still have the one in the barn in good shape that has not been used since 1954 But it is not a finger cutter offer like pictured, it is 3 rigid tines on each side. Would take 5 bales at a time. Got elevator ang did not use it after. On rented neighbor barn use one for a year or two about 1960 and had helped the owner the previous year untill he died.Was 13 and found him laying on his back in the manure with the pitchfork laying on his chest, sight you never forget. I had a colection of forks and carriers but have gotten rid of some. The Amish I work with still use them and like the style pictured that will if you are not real carefull will take a finger off. And I was there probably around 5 years ago when the track came down from top of barn loaded with bales. I don't know how they got up to put it back but next day it was working again. Luckly nobody got hurt, think there were 3 in mow when the load came down. I don't remember how many bales they had on it but the bales were bigger than we ever made with our baler. I have furnished them with parts.
 
Yes I can remember the times putting loose hay in the barn, My job at about 8 or 10 years old in the early 40s was to drive the team to pull up the hay fork. We didn't have the slings just a trip hay fork that My uncle (Great Uncle & Grandmother that raised Me as My Mother died at My birth) would set in the hay on the wagon and trip with a rope that He could also pull the empty fork back out to the wagon to set for the next load. What I remember most is how heavy the double-trees would get after a few return trips. Had to carry them up to keep from hitting the horses heels. That was when coke was a nickle (6 ounce)and all-day suckers a penny each. Those horses were bigger than all the neighbors around us had , Kate & Koaly they minded good and My Uncle kept them well fed, really too fat for much hard work.
 
Very interesting video. We used a hay fork on loose hay but never on bales. We used a Mckee Harvester up until the early 70's. It was a loose hay system that blew the hay into a box wagon . Then the whole system came to the barn and you blowed the hay thru a pipe system into the mow.
 
Way back in my younger days we used to use forks to put loose hay up in the mow. Started with horse power then tractor power then electric motor power. Originally used slings and then moved onto forks. When the unit came back over the wagon it would automatically trip and the forks would come down. Sometimes very rapidly. Have seen the forks actually spike into the wagon. Never stood on the wagon while the forks were returning. Really got a workout tearing into that pile of twisted up loose hay to get it mowed away properly. Still remember how hot it got up in the mow with hot hay going into a already hot mow. Clover was the worst hay to work with. Hard to tear apart when it came up the loader and hard to tear apart in the mow. Sure did smell good thought.
 

When our girls were little and we baled hay for the horses I rigged up a pulley and rope to lift bales into the loft using a lawn mower. It was a nylon rope with two small hooks and one girl would hook the bale and other would back up the lawn mower and pull one bale at a time up to me where I would unhook and send the hooks back down. It was a lot of waiting for me at first because I had to put a piece of colored tape on the rope so the mower person wouldn't back up too far and jam the knot into the little pulley. After a while we became a well oiled machine and they were waiting on me to stack the hay. It was slow but painless but we got er done. Every once in a while they mention that and we laugh together.
 
No, central Ohio. Dad saw it at the Ohio State Fair and with 5 young sons it was a perfect match. This was in the early 60's. I still have the running gear under a flat bed .
 
I have the unloading unit here that was used with one. A neighbor had it. For unloading you would somehow open the back of the chopper and lay a front endgate down on the wagon and pull the load back thru the chopper and it would blow the hay into the mow with the same spout that put it into the wagon. This is west central Ohio. Never saw it used. His wagon was made out of Ford auto front axles that I have as well. He passed on guessing 20-25 years ago and wagon was falling apart when I got it and chopper was long gone.
 
Where at in west central ? Spent many a summer forking hay back thru the chopper. The chopper had a door in it that was reversed for unloading.
 
FarmerJohn:
My barn (1848) has the identical set-up.
We put in all new ropes and used it several years ago to put up one cutting of loose hay (with horses). Everything works fine, but a lot of work.
If you can... try to rescue the track too. The Amish (or people like me) will pay you good money for it all... then put in their new barns and use it.
John
 
Neat, I didn't think they exported any. My Dad had one and sold it to a neighbour who used it into the early 70's as well. I still have the original sale bill and the operators book.
 
Too bad the old barn has to go, but nothing lasts forever. I think there is a market for old barn wood, if you knew where to sell it. Dad used hooks similar to that to pull bales up into the top of the stack of hay in our barn similar to the one in the picture. I got to drive the Farmall A to pull the bales up Since the rope was hanging in the barn it was a good place to play Tarzan swinging with the rope. One time I didn't have a good hold on both ropes. The rope with the hooks came up and hooked my private parts. Had to go to the doctor and things stitched back together. The doctor must have done a good job, because everything still worked. One memory growing up on the farm I will not forget.Stan
 
Our old barn still has the track and the trolley. We always had a Kewanee elevator to fill it with and once the barn was full I would hang on the trolley and "fly" across the barn.
 
i helped a friend of mine many years ago put a lot of hay in barn with a fork.
his granddad almost put a fork full of hay thru the end wall of barn.
friend's dad jumped from top of load ran down barn ramp and yelled at his dad 80 + years old and yelled at him where in hellp do you think you are going the only time i ever heard him swear.
 
I've never stuck the forks but I made a lot short trips back and forth on the old Super C. Missed my stop signal once and destroyed the track in the back of this old barn.
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We used the forks to put loose hay in the hay loft (down South we say loft and up North they say Mow). we called them forks and used mules to pull the rope.
 
Auglaize-Shelby county line close to Logan county line. The person that had the unit lived on the Auglaize side of tha A-S line.
 
Did not know they were Canadian. Was here in Ohio as well, Auglaize county. Every body except the one person had gone to bales.
 
One uncle used a McKee harvester. Initially for hay, back in the fifties, and, later on, for straw only. Used to feed the bales a third or a half at a time into the back of the chopper and blow it in loose. They did that till 20 years ago or so. If the wind was blowing the wrong way, you'd almost choke on the dust.
 
I can barely remember using the old slings and hay loader. We had a trailer that we pulled with the H then would unhook from trailer, to pull the slings up. Dad would then use the Car. To pull the hay car along to the location he wanted the hay to fall at.
Later he got a MC Kee chopper and would blow hay from the wagon into the barn then blow the straw in after the hay as the last thing to do in late summer.
 
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