How the Big boys tap

[TwinBay]

Question?
How do farms that have 80,000 taps, tap all their trees??
Do they hire 500 guys for a week to go drilling trees?
If you cannot drill a frozen tree, and have to wait for the tree to warm, how do they tap that many trees at once?
I'm having a heck of a time just tapping 130 alone !!

Thanks;

[PerryW]

They start tapping much earlier than us smaller guys, but because they mostly use vacuum and new plastic (or check valve spouts) their tapholes stay running longer.

Also, you can tap frozen trees, you just have to be careful to not split the bark by pounding in the spout too hard.

[TunbridgeDave]

Bascoms has about 60000 taps and they have a whole crew, but it takes a couple weeks. You can drill a frozen tree with no problem, as long as you pick a good spot and the wood is white, it will run good.

I use a older panasonic drill with 2 3.5Ah batteries and can get over 400 holes before I run out of juice. I'd say it takes about 12 man hours to tap our 800 taps, but we have a heck of a mountain to climb. It's nearly 1000 foot elevation difference from the sugarhouse to the last tree.

[TwinBay]

Thanks for the info.
I understood that the spiles sometimes get pushed out of the holes when the tree contracts if there is a dep frost?
I will attempt to drill our trees this weekend and gently place in the spiles.
We are in Parry Sound Ontario and it is still -10 C at night, but warming soon.

[spud]

Question?
How do farms that have 80,000 taps, tap all their trees??
Do they hire 500 guys for a week to go drilling trees?
If you cannot drill a frozen tree, and have to wait for the tree to warm, how do they tap that many trees at once?
I'm having a heck of a time just tapping 130 alone !!

Thanks;

I was able to tap my whole woods in a week. I think the lack of snow allowed me to get this done that fast. I have talked to others that tap 800-1000 a day but for me 700 was plenty. The biggest problem the big boy's have is finding people to do a quality job in tapping their trees. Most every large operation I have talked to have all said this. I think it is very safe to say that MOST large operations also make less syrup per tap. There are guy's on Trader making half gallon per tap or more and I will bet you MOST large operations don't even come close to that.

Spud

[maple flats]

Yea, watch who you hire! This year I had a guy I trained. I tapped, explained and gave every bit of info for about 45 minutes while he watched, (I was actually training 2). Then I watched while they tapped for about 30 minutes and pointed out things to improve as they did. I stated that proper tapping is far more important than speed. The next day I discovered one of them started drilling angled down as soon as left alone, on some 2 stem trees with 1 drop he drilled the 4-5" stem rather than the 14-18" stem. On one 3 stem cluster, with 2 drops he drilled both into a 4" stem and none into the 12" nor 14" stems. Needless to say, he was history.
I just wonder if someone from Vermont sent him to screw up my bush, HA!
Over the years I have had several help tap, he was by far the worst. Most were good, 2 were exceptionally good.

[CBOYER]

Big places in Québec hires people with "DEP en acériculture" an 1005 hours course on sugaring operation.

[gmcooper]

Good tapping help is hard to find. I usually tap all alone. It is quicker and far fewer screwups. I get plenty that volunteer that couldn't follow directions any better than MapleFlats help. Funny how volunteers think they are such great help no matter how much they screw up!

[Bruce L]

I can usually drill about 200/hour with the Mrs. following me driving in the cvs and tapping on the stubbies.Had a friend over the other day said he could easily outdo a woman,he would follow me and do the same job.After he left I found a number of trees where the cvs were not driven in or stubbies attached,so I will have to backtrack everywhere he helped with when it gets warm again before we turn the vaccuum on.Good of him to help,but i hate doing a job twice.

[TwinBay]

Thanks for the replies.
I have 135 buckets, lids, spiles, drill and hammer to lug through a fresh dump of snow here in Parry Sound.
Think I better take a few beer and watch the dog laugh at me.....should be a fun day.
Looks like we wont get sap flow for another week.

[ennismaple]

80,000 taps
A 2-man crew can tap an average of 1,000 taps per day
= 80 days if only one crew tapping
= 8 crews of 2 men to get all 80,000 taps installed in 10 days

We don't trust other people to tap so my brother and I do it all. I've seen too many taps drilled by others into dead wood, right beside an old hole, in the wrong stem of a multi stem tree or clear through into a cavity of a hollow tree. Plus, we tend to know which trees have a bad side, are hollow etc... because we tap them every year. When people come to help us out we let them tap a few trees for the experience under close supervision - and then they're given a rubber mallet and shown how to properly seat a CV and a stubby.

[eustis22]

80,000 taps
A 2-man crew can tap an average of 1,000 taps per day
= 80 days if only one crew tapping
= 8 crews of 2 men to get all 80,000 taps installed in 10 days

We don't trust other people to tap so my brother and I do it all. I've seen too many taps drilled by others into dead wood, right beside an old hole, in the wrong stem of a multi stem tree or clear through into a cavity of a hollow tree. Plus, we tend to know which trees have a bad side, are hollow etc... because we tap them every year. When people come to help us out we let them tap a few trees for the experience under close supervision - and then they're given a rubber mallet and shown how to properly seat a CV and a stubby.

"in the wrong stem of a multi stem tree "

What's this mean?

[Chainsaw Baby]

The tree forks. The larger diameter stem would typically be tapped. Unless the voice in your head is dictating otherwise...

[ennismaple]

The tree forks. The larger diameter stem would typically be tapped. Unless the voice in your head is dictating otherwise...

Bingo. Some mulit-stemmed trees haven't been thinned to remove the inferior stems. I've seen taps in 6" stems when the 14" stem beside it wasn't tapped. I've also seen taps in stems that are snapped off 10 feet above your head!