Question
Does it hurt to trim out the suckers on oak trees?  I thought this would be good for the tree.  Does trimming the suckers help the tree to be healthy? Want to cut down the dead limbs and the suckers hanging over the fence before winter.  Please advise.  Thank you in advance for any information you can give.

Answer
By suckers I assume you mean the sprouts from the main trunk. These can be pruned off any any time. Cut them back to the trunk. The dead limbs can also be cutoff at any time of the year. It will not help or hurt the health of the tree. IF there are a large number of suckers this could reduce the amount of minerals etc. shared by the other foliage but this will be a small percent and really not causing a problem. The main reason to remove the suckers is for aesthetics--the sucker will grow large and make the tree look more bushy--it will look better with a  clean trunk.