Is my pekin bantam male or female?

[Margalot]

We are about to remove a very old Lleylandii hedge and are in the process of renovating our house and having a log burner installed.

 

Does anyone know that if we season the logs we retrieve can we burn them? We are concerned about the resin in the wood?? will it make a mess of the glass front or damage the flue?

 

also how long to season the wood if we can burn it?

 

Save that it will be going on a bonfire just seems such a waste!!

[Olly]

You can burn it, but it will burn quite quickly - a bit like pine. I'd keep it till next year if you can, because it will have quite a lot of resin in it I think.

 

I don't think it's the first choice of stuff to burn, but if it's going free why not use it - a shame to waste it.

[Guest]

I'd burn it - the glass is easy to clean and I get the chimney swept once a year at a cost of just £35 - which is considerably less than buying wood.

 

Having said that I'm now in the happy position of not needing to buy wood. My OH has his company right next door to a woodyard so every day he brings home a sackfull of offcuts - he even gets them to cut them down if they are too big. Now if I could just persuade him to take the van to work instead of his fancy car....

[Guest]

I would season them too shame to waste them they will burn really well as they are quite an oily wood. I think they will leave too much residue up the chimney if you dont season them properly good luck indie

[Jools]

I wouldn't burn them as logs, but I'd cut them up into kindling and smaller bits of wood to use for fire lighting.

[docsquid]

You will need to season them to reduce the water content to about 20% or less before they will burn efficiently. Seasoning will reduce the amount of smoke and resin that will cause problems in the chimney and on the glass of your stove. You need to put them in a loose stack so air can move between the logs and with a roof over them.

 

Seasoning usually takes a year. If you split them, you can accelerate the process.