Yellow Birch

[Got Wood]

Got a phone call from a friend early this morning. His inlaws were having a Yellow Birch taking down today and he wanted to know if I was interested in the wood (of course). I have never had Yellow Birch before but from looking at the BTU charts it looks like a winner. I took home a couple loads (F150 Super Crew) which I estimate to be about 1/3 cord/load depending on how high I pile it on. It will get split and stacked this weekend.

Anyone out there burned Yellow Birch?

 

[i3bpvh]

that's all ive been burning so far this year. Burns great, but get it split ASAP or all you'll have is a pile of rotted wood.

 

[peakbagger]

It burns well but suffers from the same limitations as white birch. If the tree is currently dead, it will rot standing up. Once its cut it needs to be split asap otherwise it rots if its in rounds or long lengths. A lot of the yellow birch I get in the north country is gnarly old stuff and it can be a bear to split, real stringy. I can use it after one season of drying.

 

[Got Wood]

Thanks for the tips. The wood is in great shape now with no signs of softening/rot - good hard wood. It will be split and stacked within a week with ETA in my stove ..... about January 2012

 

[WOODBUTCHER]

Thanks for the tips. The wood is in great shape now with no signs of softening/rot - good hard wood. It will be split and stacked within a week with ETA in my stove ..... about January 2012

It will have a similar sent as Black Birch, although not quite as strong......still smells like Birch Beer.........happy cutting.

WB

 

[firefighterjake]

I burned some yellow birch last night and this morning . . . good stuff . . . better than white birch for BTUs and the bark allows it to catch fire even with very small coals in the firebox.

 

[Henz]

hey that is good to know. We do ahve yellow birch whre I am from, but also hard maple, red oak, cherry etc so I typically do not burn alot of birch..having said that, I jsut had most of my 50 acress logged off of white pine and hemlock..The logger told me that primarily in our area once pine is taken out yellow birch tends to be on the the first hardwoods that starts to grow back

 

[Chief Ryan]

Yeah i got a bunch of it and it burns great, has high btu's and splits easy too.

 

[John the Painter]

Not a whole lot of difference than White Birch

 

[dougstove]

Hi;
Not sure what people mean by 'yellow birch', but around here 'Betula alleghaniensis' is some of the best firewood we get.
It is dense and great for over-night burns. My stuff does not light particularly easily (slower than maple), but once going gives a long lasting, hot bed of coals.
My stuff is often tricky to split, with a crinkly/crimped grain, almost like a zipper along the length.
The surface bark is fine and comes off in yellowy wisps (unlike the thicker sheets of white birch). The trees are usually longer lived and larger than white birch, at least here.
My stuff superficially resembles white birch, but burns completely differently.

 

[ikessky]

I've burned a little yellow birch, but typically don't get a lot of it. A big yellow birch is worth quite a bit to a logger and I'm cutting on my FIL's land. He select cuts every year, so I end up with a lot of tops, butts, and limbs of varying species. I had a couple yellow birches lined up to cut this spring, but we were driving through the woods the other day and he stopped by one and made a comment about how if you find nice yellow birch like this, you can get a nice load of veneer logs. I found some scraggly leaners too though, so I think I'm still safe to take those.