coppice cutter

Only twice? Jeez, I'd take that most days.

There's an agricultural product available called "Galebreaker" which is basically a weatherproof mesh. I've used it in the past and it works well, but it is very fine and even then direct rain blown wind will still drip down on the inside, but doesn't get through any further. Could be difficult to buy a commonly available commercial mesh to do a similar job though.

Thanks Steven, seems to be out of stock most places at present so will probably go with the Valiant.

Thanks Gareth, seems like that'll do the job.

Is this the boyo? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Valiant-FIR421-Moisture-Firewood-Brickwork/dp/B071KQ2NPP?th=1

Looking to buy a moisture meter, nothing expensive or fancy as it's only going to be used occasionally as a guide for myself and I'm neither buying nor selling so the pin type will be grand. But equally I'd like to at least get one of those that's as accurate as possible for the type. Had one laying around that came with our first Burley but I stuck a new battery in it and it's dead, it never felt that robust anyway. No scarcity whatsoever of different options available on amazon/ebay so any pointers would be very useful. Thanks.

Something in my mind that back in the day lime bark was used for rope making, or something along those lines? It is especially thick, even on thin branches.

My guess is that it has to be bone dry and then it's ok. Some things are more tolerant of moisture content than others, it seems to be something particularly intolerant. On the thickness thing, I find that for willow, the smaller branch wood burns better than thicker rings which have been split, really thin willow also makes good kindling. Whereas I've tried pencil thick lime for kindling (well dried!) and it was hopeless. Lime has a very thick fibrous bark, maybe it's a factor.

Split a couple of bits and put them in the cooker oven for a couple of days. Set them in to the stove last night and they burnt grand, not long lasting as you'd expect but perfectly useable. Seems it just need particularly well dried with anything thickish better split or given an extra year.

I didn't read the entire article but I just assumed that allowing the bees to feed naturally makes them stronger and less susceptible to disease generally. That's certainly the case with everything else, can't see why bees would be any different?

Far from it, go through the sectors. Pigs and poultry lost the plot decades ago to the degree that it's been referred to by the agricultural industry itself as "the intensive sector" for as long as I can remember. Dairy farming is rapidly heading that way with robotic milking, and cows housed 365 days in the year becoming increasingly commonplace. Breeding dairy cattle which are so singular in their purpose that they can scarcely survive outside in anything but ideal conditions and with ridiculously high levels of nutrition required leading to increased requirements for imported feed and higher on-farm levels of nitrate and ammonia being produced as a result. Not only have the dairy farmers not learned anything from how pigs and poultry went, they seen determined to hand the greenies as much ammo against agriculture as possible. Arable, as you say, pretty much max input, max output. Beef has a foot in both camps. Some beef reared fairly extensively, some reared very intensively such as bull beef units, and plenty at all points in between. But the beef industry could still be made much more eco-friendly without too much effort, easily transformable. Finally sheep, generally the most eco-friendly sector in agriculture probably because sheep by and large don't do well with intensive management. Although a lot of the early spring lamb would be quite heavily fed on concentrates rather than grass, but I don't think that's as big a thing as it used to be. It's not something we aim for anyway and our own lamb is fed on nothing but grass and their mothers milk. So take agriculture as a whole, which is how others see it, and it's hard to disagree surely that from an environmental point of view there is much more wrong that right.

No I don't believe it is. Look at the impact that the rising cost of chemical fertiliser and imported feedstuffs has had on it. A truly sustainable industry would not have been so affected. It's not an easy furrow to plough, farmers think I'm nuts because I grow trees, make hay, have a huge dung heap where the silo used to be, and the fertiliser sower has about 10yrs worth of dust on it. And the greenies hate me anyway because I'm still a farmer. However the fact remains, the farmers and the greenies will both continue to be angry and frustrated until they start talking to each other. Maybe if that ever happens I could actually be friends with both.

Surely someone like yourself who allows their bees to feed over the winter as nature intended would be the very person who could possibly get away without treating?

All the more pity then that the majority of beekeepers can't generally be content taking what the bees don't need rather than taking the lot and feeding them unnaturally instead. Then again, it's just echoing modern agricultural practice which is all about maximising all the time, maximum tonnage, maximum livestock gain, maximum milk yield, etc, etc. Meanwhile the whole concept of working with nature has been entirely forgotten about. Speaking of which, it really is amazing how nature works to provide a constant supply of blossoms over such a huge period of time to ensure that there's always a food supply somewhere.

I read that bees only need between a third and a half of their own honey to sustain them through the winter naturally and the rest can be harvested without detriment to them. Is that accurate in your experience?

I'm not a bee keeper at all although much of what I read about natural bee keeping does definitely strike a common cord with my own experience of switching from intensive livestock keeping to more natural practices there also. I'm not sure therefore if this is meaningful or not. http://www.dheaf.plus.com/beekeeping_photos/gwynedd_winter_losses.jpg

Yes, farmed bees are honey bees, but honey bees don't have to be farmed.

Just had a quick look and for a government publication it looks remarkably decent. Was initially going to print it off, but that wouldn't really be very tree friendly would it.!

There's a few things that have got out-competed but still young enough to be transplantable singly to other places on the farm. I mark them with tape through the summer and when winter comes you look at them and would never imagine they had any reason to struggle. The difference between winter and summer in a broadleaved woodland never ceases to amaze me.

Sorry, missed this. Knew of linden but basswood is a new one. Related to it's use in musical instruments?

With respect no, I'll not be contributing to the further demise of the honey bee by facilitating bee farming. I do however intend to provide at least one wild hive in close proximity if not this spring then definitely next. And if it is a success I will add another.

All the thinning I've done up until now have been relatively easy regarding decision making as I thinned out bad leaners, self-seeded amongst the planted trees, etc. But from now on I'm going to have to decide what goes and what stays on a more pragmatic basis and I'd like to try to educate myself a bit more on the subject and the principles behind it beyond competition for light and nutrients. Can anyone recommend any good books on the subject? Thanks.

Thanks for all replies. It would seem that even allowing for the limitations inherent in something so light and soft, mine is doing particularly badly. I'll give it another summer, make sure that it specifically gets a good drying, and try it again next winter. Longer term, as well as several clumps of 3 or 4 trees dotted around I have three specific blocks of lime each with 40 - 50 trees planted at 2m spacings. Rather than coppicing them in a sweep I think I'll thin as required and let the best grow on in to bigger trees which should increase the possibility of the wood being able to be used for a more constructive purpose.

Excuse my ignorance, so Basswood is Lime?

Let me say first of all that I am firmly in the "anything dry will burn" camp therefore I've burnt Alder, Leylandii, Elderberry, Willow, and all sorts in the past with no issue. However, lately I've burnt my first decent bits of Lime and it does seem particularly hopeless. It was cut two full years ago, it's been covered, plenty of airflow, and wasn't especially thick to begin with. It behaves as if it's still not properly dried, a bit dead and smouldery, but the Willow and Alder cut at the same time and treated the same way is fine. The reason I'm asking for other peoples experiences of it is firstly, is it something that needs a particularly long drying time? But secondly, if it's just an especially poor burner, in future I'll probably just confine the cutting of it to whatever is necessary for thinning and put my coppicing efforts in to something a bit more worthwhile. They're lovely trees and the leaves are nicer in a salad than any lettuce you'll ever buy, the regrowth from the ones already cut is also very healthy, but the burning experience so far is not impressive! All relevant experiences welcomed.