Burn the birch?

[Johnpolk]

Does anyone have any experience with birch? I'm far enough ahead on my wood now that I'm having to choose which wood I want to burn. I have some birch that's in next years stacks, but is dry now. Should I burn it this year or will it keep ok if top covered? I've heard that birch can get punky quick.

 

[NH_Wood]

I've had fine luck with top covered split birch for 3-4 years in the stack (ranging from paper, gray, yellow and black birches). In the round, a different story - yellow and black hold up pretty well - not paper or gray - those rounds punk relatively quickly - especially if they get wet often. Cheers!

 

[paul bunion]

Does anyone have any experience with birch? I'm far enough ahead on my wood now that I'm having to choose which wood I want to burn. I have some birch that's in next years stacks, but is dry now. Should I burn it this year or will it keep ok if top covered? I've heard that birch can get punky quick.

All of the above. If you have yellow or black birch then definitely pull some pieces out for long overnight burns. They are up there with the best of BTU producing wood. Otherwise if you keep it dry it will be fine next year.

 

[Nixon]

My only experience is with Black Birch , but I suspect it holds true for the otther species of birch . Get it split and stacked fairly quicky ,as it rots if not split . I stack mine off the ground on pallets , and top cover as soon as it's stacke. I've had stacks last 5+ years done that way . Btw Black Birch is great stuff ,I'll take it over red oak when I can find it .

 

[Coal Reaper]

my boiler loves black birch, puts out a great deal of heat. just dont expect to have any coals left. no problems with SPLITS going punk.

 

[ScotO]

Bogydave burns birch almost exclusively. And he preaches about getting it split and stacked off of the ground to keep it from punking out. I'm pretty sure that birch is one of the fastest woods to get punky if it is left in rounds out in the weather. I don't have any birch in my stacks but lots of soft maple, which will get punky if you let it stay wet as well. That's another reason that I top-cover my stacks!!

 

[billb3]

+1 with splitting it asap and keeping it as dry as posssible

 

[Johnpolk]

Ok. It's split stacked and top covered so I won't worry about it. Thanks for the replies and happy burning

 

[Backwoods Savage]

For sure with white birch it is important to get it split as quickly as posibile. If you do not split it, definitely it will rot fast but after split it can keep for years.

 

[Paulywalnut]

I've finally got some birch to burn this year. The fresh split smells like licorice. I'm looking forward to trying it.
Heard good things about it, but rare around here. 2 years seasoned.

 

[JOHN BOY]

+1 i always top cover ..ALWAYS

 

[bogydave]

Birch is our best BTU wood.
Split it ASAP, 2 years& it's good 3 years & it's great.
Gotta be split & out of the rain & good air circulation or it can get punky relatively fast.
(top cover works. Don't covered completely with tarps)

 

[peakbagger]

Once white birch is split it lasts as long as any other hardwood. One problem with white birch is if you wait to see if the tree is dead (no leaves), its already half rotten. Cut em when they are healthy. I hand split all my white birch usually in the winter and then put them under cover. I find that it dries quick under cover, If I drop in January, its ready by the next January. Not sure if it would be dry enough for a high tech gasification boiler but works fine in mine which is either full bore flame or no flame.

 

[Wood Duck]

I would burn the birch now. You say it is dry, so it should burn well, and it tends to rot sooner than most other woods. In addition, other woods may benefit from another year of seasoning more than the birch would benefit.

 

[Slow1]

Black birch is my favorite wood to split (smells great) and to burn. I agree with the statements about it going punky fast if not split. I've been told that this is because the bark is waterproof. For small rounds not worth splitting I've been scraping the bark as much as possible to give some way for it to dry - will see in a couple years if that made a difference or not.

I have some that I'm splitting now that was sitting too long - the rot has started already at the heart. I'm hoping that once split it will dry and stop the rot. There was a piece of white/paper birch in there that was already too far gone to bother splitting (into the compost pile it went).