Steve Oehlenschlager
5 year old buck +
Just so you know......birch don't hinge cut for crap. They always will break and snap. One nice thing about cutting down birch is that all the trunks rot in a few years.
Hinging
- Thread starter chummer
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Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Thanks for the info, guys. Ours will be mostly red maples. ^^^^^ No birch in this area we logged & propose to hinge in.
landlord
5 year old buck +
I have had good luck hinging yellow birch.
chummer
5 year old buck +
Yellow birch is probably 50% of what is left after my logging. I have been hinging it all summer with good success. It appears they are all still alive. I never hinged in the summer before. I will say they hinge way better. A lot of them snapped in the winter now they lay right down. Another thanks to Steve B for that one.
Steve Oehlenschlager
5 year old buck +
Who wants to hinge cut in the summer!!!!! The bugs right now would kill me in minutes! But yes birch trees just snap in the winter. The bigger they are the worse they snap.
WTNUT
5 year old buck +
What is the secret to getting the mature trees to live? I really have terrible success with anything living more than a year to be truthful. But, I do prefer to hinge larger trash trees where possible.
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4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I have had my best luck with 3-5 inch trees, anything over that is a crap shoot, but I usually will try, and if they dont hings, I made ground cover, and opened up the canopy for my oaks to spread out, and for new growth on the ground.
j-bird
Moderator
Hinging in the summer time.....that just sounds like a case of sticky shorts (I cleaned it up) waiting to happen! Maybe in the cooler temps of the morning, but other than that I would think the bugs would carry you off! Oh well, proves if there is a will there is a way....I have issues with hard maple snapping regardless of size - I may just have to see if the summer temps help with that as well.......
chummer
5 year old buck +
We have been so dry this year there are no Mosquitos. I mean zero, it is unbelievable. Deer flies have been bad but I can handle those. Try hinging those maples now. I think you will be presently surprised. I have been hinging all summer and some large trees. The only thing that has snapped is a few soft maples. It will be interesting to see if the hinges live past this year.
landlord
5 year old buck +
I have cut some 15" maples this year that are still alive. We will see if they come back next year. The key, I found is to cut them low, 1 foot from the ground so they don't snap when they land. I won't know for sure till next year if they will make it long term. The main problem is the deer eating all the tips they can reach.
Tap
5 year old buck +
You don't want to let the wind take them down. A slow, controlled drop is preferred. Stacking trees on top of each other is the way to go, especially if you are creating beds. And a hook is precious. Trying to precisely place a tree that leans in the wrong direction is a major chore without a hook...especially when making the higher cuts for bedding. And a hook allows for a shallow cut which makes for a higher survival rate.
There is an upside to hinging in August or early September. There is a tremendous amount of browse tonnage in the living leaves and my deer will pound them. Even with plots right in the area, they will still spend a lot of time browsing on summer hinge cuts. If you wait until winter, you lose that precious green browse...think of it as maximizing your property's tonnage. This approach works great with cherry.
There is an upside to hinging in August or early September. There is a tremendous amount of browse tonnage in the living leaves and my deer will pound them. Even with plots right in the area, they will still spend a lot of time browsing on summer hinge cuts. If you wait until winter, you lose that precious green browse...think of it as maximizing your property's tonnage. This approach works great with cherry.
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