What do most of you do with the branches when you drop a tree? I see some limb a tree before dropping it. Some don't. Either way, do you cut up the branches for firewood as well?
I cut everything down to about an inch or a little bigger, I use them to start fires and mostly fill in overnight loads. With the PH its good to put some small stuff on top of the big splits to get it hot quick then it cruises from there.
I burn most everything that I cut, usually 2in. and up. The small stuff comes in handy for starting, fill in and getting the fire hot quickly.
I cut up the branches down to about 3-4" across. Everything smaller than that gets left in the woods. Good cover for the animals and nutrients for the other trees.
I like to cut down to where when I grab it my fingers and thumb almost touch when wrapped around the branch. Remember it takes them about twice as long or longer to dry if left in the round and completely wrapped in bark still. So if you are trying to use them with your splits from the same tree split em and the make nice morning relighters! The rest of the brush gets stacked in piles for rabbits and other critters.
I need a chipper. I hate paying for mulch. I keep the small branches down to about a couple inches for burning in the fire. I just cut them in long sticks 6-8 feet long in the woods, and throw them on top of the trailer after I get the big stuff loaded. At the house I break up and cut up all of it, and burn the twigs even in the fire pit to enjoy other a drink or 3 with the wife and dogs. In the woods, I leave the really small stuff to get used by nature. I'll drop a live tree or 2 and let the tops sit over winter. The deer and rabbits will eat the tender bark. They even ate a lot of the tops of the big hickory I dropped and have 95% of that tree split and stacked.
Here is one example of what we keep. Sometimes when wife helps we take smaller stuff but since the ash borer problem started, we sometimes don't cut down as small simply because there is too much wood. Some don't like this because we don't split any of this stuff but we've never had a problem getting it to dry. We burn most of it in spring and fall but still will have some during winter and it can be handy for packing the stove on those really cold and long winter nights.
I keep everything 3 - 4 " & up. I cut all the limbs off flush with the trunk for easier splitting. Very few limbs on birch are over 2" or so.
I started keeping everything over an inch or so but after I had some wood I started to get picky about where I spend my time. Here lately anything under 2 inches goes to the street. The village comes by once a week and chips anything you leave out there as long as it is under about 6 inches and under 8 feet long. We have no wood dump and I don't know where the village hauls all of those chips but they have a big pile every spring to mulch flower beds in the park.
Branches? At our camp they make for nice big smokey brush fires. At home the tree guys who bring me wood think anything less than 12" gets chipped. The one with a crane thinks the cutoff for the chipper is more like 16".
I cut n burn everything 2in. and up, most of the time I leave em long ,stack em on the pole rack and cut lot of them at once to length
Some varied answers here. My son and I cut down some cherry that is over hanging the driveway this weekend. He thought I was crazy when I saved anything an inch and above. When let it go to waste? I think for many of you it's a time waste to put the effort into too small a diameter. Which results in people burning and or chipping. Makes sense. I guess for me I've already put the effort to cut down these young trees that are the size of 1" to 3" in diameter. I'm not judging, and the only reason I am bothering is that I had the time. As my operation gets into full swing this fall and beyond, I am sure I'll revisit this thought and revise it.
it's true I sometimes save stuff down to an inch and use it for kindling, it just depends on how I feel that day
Really it depends on how I feel, but when the tree is on the ground and I can limb branches that are in the air, I'll sometimes go down to 1". If it's on the ground already, I'll leave anything under 3" alone because it's not worth my time to get it off the ground to cut it. Then, if I'm in the woods I'll stack it for wildlife habitat, or if it's near the house I'll drag it near my fire pit and use it in a bonfire at some future date.
Interesting to hear all the different responses. I like to keep about 2" branches and bigger, and I'll leave the rest in the woods, or if it's on my property I'll carry it to the woods. I do like to have small wood on hand for kindling, both for the stove and for campfires. I have a couple of bins of small branches and bark that will be kindling for this winter. Rounds bigger than 3-4" get stacked and burned in the main wood pile. They do take longer to dry but they're so small I don't think it matters.
