First taps in 2013

[batsofbedlam]

G.B. and R.K. have tapped this weekend (Jan. 5&6, 2013) in eastern Connecticut. I plan to tap starting Jan. 21.

[oxfordsugarshack]

i think i would of held off just a small january thaw i plan on tapping end of january

[valleyman]

Hi Bats,

I was figuring that you were getting started real soon. The past couple of days and the next few seem promising. I'm waiting a bit. Ugg, the work is about to begin!
-Cuz G in Ansonia

[ctjim]

saw that someone in my town has also tapped on a small gravity run and yesterday afternoon there was about a 1/2 full container of sap. seems a bit early yet, i was thinking of tapping early this yr maybe around the end of the month depending on weather.

[Friedrich_Sugarhouse]

I tapped half of mine (45) in Mansfield on Tuesday and yesterday I made about a shot of wonderful, really sweet, golden syrup, the best I've ever made. Going to tap my Andover lot in February or late January. I tapped early last year and had a pretty good season. By the way I have your (Bats of Bedlam) syrup in my fridge right now, excellent stuff and my favorite jug picture.

[Starting Small]

For those of you in CT or surrounding areas who have tapped, looking back are you glad that you did? I still wish I had tapped in 2 weeks ago in hindsight but I am wondering with this blast of cold air if you guys are still pleased with starting? I was not able to simply because I planned a vacation for last week never thinking we would have had that warm weather.
-Dave

[bemer]

I taped early, glad I did. Even if I have to pull taps and redrill the trees for a second season, they will do their job. One year the only sap I got was in Jan.

[Durham Sugarhouse]

Putting in 450 taps this weekend on vacuum. Should be a big run this week Tuesday and Wednesday. Set 30 taps last Saturday and got about 2 gal. of sap per tap in 24 hours. Sugar content was 2.0 to 2.2% when normally it is 1.3 to 1.7%. Looking forward to a great season.

[Starting Small]

My brother and I tapped half today and will finish up the other half tomorrow. We had to set up all of our drop lines, laterals and 5/16 "mainline" and tap. We started at 9:30 and still were not done by 2:30. So tomorrow we should wrap things up I hope and be ready for hopefully a Tuesday night boil. Are most people in CT tapping or waiting?

[ebourassa]

i am ready to go but i will wait to febuary looks like more cold weather coming after thursday will have to see what happens next week. if i had vacuum i would of of been taped a couple weeks ago

[markct]

I have been looking at the long range forecast and looks like the usual time around feb 15th will be correct this year, a few warm days coming this week but the trees have been frozen hard from this past week of hard freezes so i will wait a couple weeks to tap

[killingworthmaple]

Wondering how long it will take for the trees to thaw after this cold? Anyone have a idea. After a few days of warm looks like back to cold again. To tap or not to tap thats the question?

Nathan

[DaveB]

Wondering how long it will take for the trees to thaw after this cold? Anyone have a idea. After a few days of warm looks like back to cold again. To tap or not to tap thats the question?

Nathan

In my experience it takes a day or two. Yeah, it does look like the cold returns on Thursday after a mild Tuesday and Wednesday. Like others have said, with the new vacuum systems you could tap in January and still be seeing sap in March but unless you have that, you run the risk of your taps running dry.

Personally, I'm waiting a couple of weeks but that's just a combination of things. I usually tap around the 14th. I have vacuum and there are a couple of things that I want to validate this year but if everything works out, I'm going to start tapping earlier.

[CTfarm]

I was planning on tapping this week, but now I'm leaning towards waiting. I'm only putting out 45 taps and that may not give me enough sap to make it worthwhile. If sugar content is low I may only produce 2 to 3 quarts out of a 2 day run. Long range temp forecast say below normal temps for the next 10 days after the warm up.

[CTfarm]

Enjoyed your smilebox video Nathan.

[killingworthmaple]

Thanks my wife did that I think she may do one again this year.

Nathan

[lafite]

I was also thinking about tapping but now I'm holding off. the 14th was always my target date..until last year! I'll be keeping an eye on the long range. I have serious anticipation anxiety this year with the new pan and the new sugar shack!

[Noah's Ark]

I tapped yesterday and had sap run from about half of the taps. Only got about 2-3 inches in the buckets but i think it will start running the next few days pretty well. I have to have a short season this year since I am moving in mid March. I will let you know how it goes over the next few days.

[sapbrush]

way to early the temps here been from 10 below to about 20 above during the daytime, bee awhile here the end of feb

[valleyman]

Lafite I hear you!

It's hard enough for me too and I don't have new set up like you. I'd probably be sleeping in my new sugarhouse right now if I were you. The anticipation still brings back memories like waiting for opening day of trout season.

I'm thinking the 14 too.

[markct]

I got another area of maybe 100 to 150 taps i have to get tubing up in for this year, so this cold til the usual time is ok by me! i dont need another early season!

[girmann]

Aww, crud. Now I'm second guessing myself after reading these posts. I was going to tap tomorrow, thinking that I would get some benefit out of this warm spell. I didn't realize the trees take a couple of days to warm up. They're also calling for the "cold snap" to be a bit warmer than they thought just a few days ago.

I only have 8 trees to tap - I've got to make it count! :)

I'm torn. Any advice?

[lafite]

7 day doesn't look promising at all
6481

[oxfordsugarshack]

looks like we will be tapping feb 8 high 40 low 20 at night for 3 weeks

[dracmaple]

I will have 60 taps this year about 30 on gravity and the rest buckets. I was thinking about tapping Saturday. Looks like it should warm up right around the 14th.

[wkies]

I am going to put my taps in around Feb. 10. My thought is no need have them sit in the tree when they are not running. My trees are not going to thaw out much even with this brief warm weather and then it gets cold again.

[girmann]

Thanks all! That was a good call. Looks like my season starts in a couple of weeks!

I wonder if I should try to build a block arch instead of my gas grill system... <Peering into the rabbit hole... How deep does this thing go, anyway?>

[killingworthmaple]

Anyone have any reports of sap flow over the last couple days in CT? I decided to wait till next week and just wondering what I missed.

Nathan

[Noah's Ark]

I have about75 gallons as of last night off of 20 taps. I tapped on the 27th, No real flow until the 29th. Had a couple of buckets overflowing on Thurdsay. I have not heard what the haul was this morning. Not all of the trees are running, I know it is early but as I said in my earlier post I have to pull my taps by the end of FEB. Good news is the new house is on 33 acres and i can expand to around 250 taps over time.

[batsofbedlam]

Our crew of 3-7 tapped 1369 trees on Monday and Tuesday. We chased vacuum leaks on Wednesday and got hit with the wind/rain storm that night. Woke up thursday morning to both sap tanks overflowing. WE suffered no damage at the Harvey sugarbush except for the vacuum pump stopping because of a power blip. Our woods at home suffered major damage with at least 5 large white pine trees going down, with one of them taking all of the large sap and vacuum lines with it. The other trees took down large sap lines in a few places. Our friend Jack Robinson came to the rescue and worked with my chainsaw and cut all of the pines out of the way and restrung and re-tensioned all of the down lines. I, meanwhile hauled sap back to our sugarhouse and ran our reverse osmosis machine to concentrate the sap.
I got Pat set up to boil and we processed and boiled 1400 gallons of sap and make about 20 gallons of delicious light syrup.
It was an 11 hour day and more of a challenge than I was looking for yesterday, but I remind myself that I do this because I really do enjoy it.

[andysyrup]

Collected about 700 gallons of sap yesterday and another 280 this after noon I'm glad the weather is cooling down so I can catch up in the sugar house so far I like this 1st run I got !

[thecabinguy]

I thought myself maybe a little foolish as I was drilling holes in trees this past weekend. I just didn't want to miss anything like last year's disaster. I scurried to hang all the sacks up, just in case. I only got about 60 taps up of the 100 I'm planning. Glad I did. Surpassed last year in one shot. Most of the trees ran like crazy during and after the storm. I only got to collect half of them on thursday. The rest are all now frozen solid. I plan on collecting all the giant bagged ice cubes tommorrow. This should be interesting. They'll melt down quick in the back pan. lol

The Sugar Shack lives again!

[girmann]

<head desk>
<covers ears with hands>

"LA LA LA!!! I Caaaaaan't Heeeeear Yoooooo!"

Seriously, congrats on the big haul!

:lol:


I thought myself maybe a little foolish as I was drilling holes in trees this past weekend. I just didn't want to miss anything like last year's disaster. I scurried to hang all the sacks up, just in case. I only got about 60 taps up of the 100 I'm planning. Glad I did. Surpassed last year in one shot. Most of the trees ran like crazy during and after the storm. I only got to collect half of them on thursday. The rest are all now frozen solid. I plan on collecting all the giant bagged ice cubes tommorrow. This should be interesting. They'll melt down quick in the back pan. lol

The Sugar Shack lives again!

[girmann]

All 8 taps are in in Unionville! (I know, what an operation we have here!)

We're excited - as some of the sugar bush is already running! Should have some to boil down this evening... hopefully the superbowl doesn't go late!

[dracmaple]

Put in 10 taps today(I couldn't wait any longer) 4 trees were running pretty good... The remainder will go in next weekend. Looks like the weather is right around the corner

[bemer]

I taped the weekend of Jan 5-6 and have had 14 runs so far, twice what I got last year, and the season hasen't even started yet. Yes I will redrill , or retap a new hole after six weeks..

[jrmaple]

Now I am feeling really left out......

Planning to tap this Sunday IN THE SNOW -.-

[lafite]

Now I am feeling really left out......

Planning to tap this Sunday IN THE SNOW -.-

It's easy to feel envious but there is no way I could have tapped earlier with my work schedule. I have a feeling it's going to be a great year! tested sugar on a few trees and nothing less than 2.5% with one tree at 2.8!!

[jrmaple]

I share the issue of finding time, school and sports interferes a lot, and this storm is buying me time to finish setting up and tapping. I'm glad the sugar content is still high, just hoping for good flow!

[Noah's Ark]

Boiled the first batch on Wed and finished it off last night. Out of 70 gallons of sap I got 6 pints of nice light syrup with great flavor. I have all most all reds so not as high sugar content in the sap. Looks like we will get a good run in about a week if the weather forcast is right. Even this early it is better than last year.

[ebourassa]

I'm with jrmaple I will be tapping Sunday an monday an hope to boil by tues or Wednesday.

[jrmaple]

I'll be tapping 45 virgin sugar maples 24" in diameter and the other 60 I have been tapping for the past six years, hopefully they will have a high sugar content and be healthy. Can't wait to test the new evaporator and hopefully get more syrup from this years first boil than all of last year combined! Good luck to all, happy boiling!

[paqmom]

A good case of bronchitis and a blizzard put me behind this year! I put in 18 taps today, dug out the pad for the wood stove and started making preps to do my first boil this weekend.

The taps I put in are running like I haven't seen them run in a bit!