So what do I do with these joints/crotches?

Here's a more familiar one . . .

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Well, as others have said, cut branches flush to the trunk. When I cut, the crotch pieces get cut much shorter than straight pieces. When splitting, put the side with two rounds facing up. Split each round, so that you're dividing the piece into thirds. With the center piece, you can either split it down the middle with about a dozen good shots from the maul, saw it up with the chainsaw, or throw it in the outdoor fire pit this summer.

Run your saw down the crotch, in to two pieces, then run them thru your splitter.
Cut them that way the first time, don't leave them as a pair of pants.

For the non splitter owners, what I do is stand them up like normal logs and split as much as I can, then I lay them down and throw a couple good shots right in the middle of the crotch, that usually does the trick

osagebow said:

Careful, sometimes part of a crotch can pop out of the splitter. They can be dicey to split. Over 1/2 my future stuff is chestnut oak, good fuel after 3 years. Welcome to the site, these guys n gals are great.

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Never had that happen yet but I've only split a few hundred cord with hydraulics.

BlueMule said:

Three years!?!? Two won't do it? Damn that's going to be a long wait...

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Try it. You will never be sorry and will be amazed at the difference it makes.

hydro spliting croches , generally a long thin wedge can do it by itself, a fast spreading or wide wedge best to give it a 3-5" head start with the chain saw. If you have the common h/v type splitter best to start it with a chain saw cut first. Too much pressure gets built up against the foot plate and also transmitted into beam before they start to split.