how many cords of wood has everyone gone through

[maplekid]

post how many cords of wood you went through this season

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

7 cords to 160 gallons of syrup. all hardwood.

But this ratio is a little inaccurate because many of the boils were only an hour or 2 long, which really it takes that long for the bricks to heat up.

[maple flats]

78 gal with 3.25 cords, about 80% hardwood, all real dry.

[Sugarmaker]

My numbers may not look as good but here are the facts.
Burning all pallets, Note a lot of air space in a cord of this stuff, so it takes up a lot of room. Also a lot of soft wood in this too.
112 gallons on 11.25 cords or about 10 gallon per cord.

Regards,
Chris

[brookledge]

12.5 cords to make 313 gallons. Mostly pine slabs
1 cord to make 25 gallons
Keith

[hard maple]

3 cords ,55 gallons
mostly pine ,some popple

[Pete33Vt]

10 cords, 140 gals, mostly hardwood some slabs (spruce and popple)

[Russell Lampron]

2 cords mixed hard and soft wood, 90 gallons of syrup. 1.5 cords to make 80 gallons last year.

Russ

[royalmaple]

About 7-8 cords for just over 100 gallons.Pallet boards, pine slabs, and mixed hardwood pecker poles. I still haven't counted my taps yet for the other post.

[mountainvan]

about 5 cords for 420 gals syrup. got to love the ro.

[ennismaple]

About 60 chords for 845 gallons. Mostly basswood and cedar. No hardwood.

[Russell Lampron]

Yes Van, the RO is a god send. I wouldn't be without one now.

Russ

[Dave Y]

6 cords 175 gal all hard maple and cherry.

[super sappy]

2 cords+ - 1/2 & 1/2 Around 40 off 135

[hookhill]

8 cords to make 100 gallons. 12.5 gallons per cord. Mostly spruce/fir slabs and popple. We plan on splitting the wood smaller this year and stacked outside till the snow flies. Also hope to get 2 years ahead so the sugarwood is dried for 2 years+. My sugaring buddy thinks we should stay away from slabs but we saw logs and the slabs are handy.

[andyp]

About 4.0 cords to make 45 gal. Mostly oak with some hemlock and spruce slabs mixed in.

Andyp

[Parker]

Kinda hard to tell exactly but about 42 cords for 447 gallons,the first 34 cords(inside the woodshed) were very dry -about 12 cords hardwood, the balance pine,,the wood outside was wet,,then the hardwood stickings I got at the end of the season were so dry by the time I got the doors closed they were gone,,,,anyone have a spare 600 gallon an hour RO out there????
I have brought 12 cords home for next season so far,,,still have 10 in the woodyard from last year,,another 10 all split down by the sugarhouse,,no bites on Mighty Marvin yet so I think Ill start filling the woodshed,,,my goal is to have it FULL this year (47? cords) by september...........

[HanginAround]

Wow Parker, that sounds like a pile of wood! Any idea why you use so much?

My uncle uses about 5 cords per 120 US gal in the 4 x 10 with no hood or preheater, all small softwood, and 15 cords mixed hardwood a season w/ the RO and the 5 x 14. Sounds like you're using double what he does in the small evap.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

About 6 cords of mostly hardwood consisting of locust with some red oak and poplar on 92.5 gallon of syrp or 15.4 cords on a ratio of 52.86 to 1. On a ratio of 40 to 1, I would have been at 20.3 gallon per cord.

[Parker]

I am not 100% sure why I use so much wood- I think it has a lot to do with low sugar content,,not having an insulated front,, not having a real good blower,,not having enough stack,,,but am open to other ideas,,would like to get the ratio up as this is a lot of wood-work for 1 person,,,,

[maple flats]

The low sugar can only be helped by good bush management and that takes a lot of time to change, unless RO. How do you fire the evap, time and how full each? What is your wood, hard, soft, dry? How do you split it (size)? How fast do you fill when door is open? Do you fill 1 side at a time? Do you refill by a timer? Answers to these might help me or someone else see a pattern that could help you discover the reasons why. I get good rates without a blower, I have a 3x8 with 18' of 12" stack (counting starting bell), wood is real dry, split small. I use 20" wood, keep it back about 5-6" from door, stack it about 1/2 full, fuel every 5min. I have the wood set right next to the evap before the door is opened, and I fuel by timer. All of these help get faster boils and less wood/gal used.

[brookledge]

Parker
Like Maple flats said there are alot of factors towards the ratio between cords vs. gal of syrup.
I had a old basic 3X8 that I got around 15-17 gallons per cord. I then got a 3X12 with a hood and pre-heater,insulated arch and a blower. I now get 25-26 gal per cord. So with those changes I got over a 50% increase in syrup per cord
Keith

[PA mapler]

About 5 cords to make 39 gallons, but it was short house-wood and odd chunks of swamp maple. The wood really needed to be split smaller.

[Father & Son]

We used about 1 1/2 cords for 24 gallons of syrup. 50% was hemlock slab and the other 50% was a variety - not split small enough and damp. Had a hard time with damp wood getting a good boil so we dropped the sap level to 1" in both pans. Had to keep a close eye on the syrup pan running it that shallow. If you didn't watch how you fired, you would make syrup in the middle channels.

Jim

[Fred Henderson]

I don't know if you are asking about face cords or full cords but I used 8 face cords (18") wood to make 60 gals.

[TapME]

My son and I used about one cord of softwood that was cut from the sugar bush to make 7gallons of syrup on a block arch. Sap never did run well for us. looking towards next seson.

[rschoo]

About 1 chord of mostly soft wood, Aspen, Cottonwood, Cedar for about 11 gal of syrup. The wood was a little damp. I think I'll do better next year with the mods to the evaporator.

[Banjo]

I'm trying to size things for this year, was everyone quoting in full cords or face cords?? Great info BTW.

thanks,
Andrew

[Parker]

I call a cord 4'X4'X8',,,as for last year I fired with a timer,,one door at a time,,the wood I burn is mostly 4' pine, not split fine enough,,although this year I am getting it finer,,and I try to fill the arch as quickly as I can,,

[Russell Lampron]

Same here, I cut, split and stack my wood in 4' lengths to let it dry and get a measure. Then I saw it into 16" lengths for the evaporator. I go by 4'x4'x8' is a cord the way that Parker does.

Russ

[3% Solution]

I also do as Russ and Parker ........... 4x4x8, now that's a cord!

I don't know what a face cord is, but I do the standard cord which equals 128 cubic feet.

I cut my slabs at 20" to go into the woodshed and as I am boiling I will split as needed. I try not to put anything larger than 3" through into the firebox.
This works for us and may not work for others, I find each arch is different, but they are all the same.

Last year I burnt a cord of wood for 18 gallons of syrup, years past was a cord to 20 gallons.

It will be interesting to see what the steam-away will do for us. Should get at least 22 to one.

May head to Bascom's today seeing it's raining.

Have a good day guys!!

Dave

[TapME]

Burned a cord of wood for (slabs and clean construction debri) 7.5 gallons of syrup.
Going to put up 3 cords of slab wood for this coming year for the new 3x8 and a few more taps.

[Revi]

We burned around 2 cords for 25 gallons of syrup. I am collecting all sorts of wood now. We burned basswood and pine, as well as mixed hardwood last year. This year we have some slabs of pine and whatever wood was left over from last year.

A friend brought over an old chair that he thought was great, but it had a split in the seat, and it pinched my butt. The next time he visited the sugarhouse he asked about the chair just as I was putting the last pieces of it into the firebox. It made some nice BTU's which boiled some syrup.

[Dennis H.]

I wish I knew how much wood I will go through!

For my small new operation that I hope to have up and running I have about 1 1/2 cord stacked and ready to go. Mostly oak with a little white pine.

[blackstrapking]

Dennis,
All I can say is that last year when I started out with my 2x 5.5 I had roughly 6ish cord in the woodshed, before I was all done I had put a healthy dent in my house wood pile. (It was well worth it!!!) It seems to me that you can never have too much "on deck" for the upcoming season.

Good luck, Jason