beehive woodpiles
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Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
All that is amount to the holtzhauzen method. Mixed reviews and the general thought is now that it does not speed up the drying. Some like it for the looks but it does take more space than regular stacking and also takes a lot longer to build. Cutting and stacking wood is hard enough work and I can see no reason to make it harder. However, as stated, some think they really look nice, so go for it if you like it.
There was a lot of chatter on this topic a few years ago. Seemed everyone was trying to build one. Not much chatter on them now. Search on holzhausen here for lots of examples and pictures where folks have tried this out. It works well for area that are tight on space.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/1630/P0/
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/1630/P0/
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jdinspector
Feeling the Heat
I just disassembled one of mine to put in the wood shed. 2 years old and all of the wood was dry. I didn't expect anything less after 2 years.
Really, though, it's no more than a conversation piece. No more efficient in drying or taking up less space than stacks. One benefit is that I threw all of my shortys and uglys in the middle of the pile. They're tough to stack in regular stacks.
Really, though, it's no more than a conversation piece. No more efficient in drying or taking up less space than stacks. One benefit is that I threw all of my shortys and uglys in the middle of the pile. They're tough to stack in regular stacks.
Wood Duck
Minister of Fire
I stack all my wood in round stacks. It looks nice and I have lots of round pads of stone that I use to stack on, so it would be a pain to switch methods now. NOthing magical about the way the wood dries, but also nothing too tough about stacking in round stacks.
Got Wood
Minister of Fire
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
I've built one or two holz mietes every year for the past two or three years . . .
Pros --
-- They look neat . . . but don't season wood any faster contrary to some on-line bloggers' opinions
-- You can stack more wood in a smaller footprint . . . but only if you are really tall or willing to use a step stool to start stacking once you go over a certain height
-- With a nice hole in the middle you can toss in your punks, chunks and uglies . . . although just sticking these on top of your traditional stacks also works well enough
Cons --
-- They're not going to magically season your wood faster . . . in fact I find some of the wood on the inside is not as dry as the wood on the outside
-- They take a little more forethought in building . . . but they really do not take up much time or effort in learning how to stack these . . . once you build one you'll easily build others in about the same amount of time it would take to stack a conventional stack.
Pros --
-- They look neat . . . but don't season wood any faster contrary to some on-line bloggers' opinions
-- You can stack more wood in a smaller footprint . . . but only if you are really tall or willing to use a step stool to start stacking once you go over a certain height
-- With a nice hole in the middle you can toss in your punks, chunks and uglies . . . although just sticking these on top of your traditional stacks also works well enough
Cons --
-- They're not going to magically season your wood faster . . . in fact I find some of the wood on the inside is not as dry as the wood on the outside
-- They take a little more forethought in building . . . but they really do not take up much time or effort in learning how to stack these . . . once you build one you'll easily build others in about the same amount of time it would take to stack a conventional stack.
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