Ok let's do a poll

[The dairy farmer]

What do you run more of buckets or tubing lets see what people do new or old fashion ?

[Machinist67]

TUBING!! Not going to carry sap again!

[optionguru]

Small clumps of tubing. 4 or 5 trees to a bucket.

[mapleguy]

500 on tubing 3-400 buckets

[maple milker]

I have about 75 on gravity lines for the first time this year. About 75 sap sacks and 70 5 gallon buckets with 2 taps into each.

[Sue @ Battel's Sugar Bush]

We're on tubing, with only about 5% on buckets in front of the sugar shack rather than having to pump sap up over the driveway (and because my father-in-law likes the nostalgia of some metal buckets around).

[adk1]

225 tubing.......20 sap sacks

[Randy Brutkoski]

People still use buckets.

[asknupp]

25 taps on tubing and about 20 on buckets.

[wrushton]

500 on pipe line, 30 or so around the camp and sugar shack.

[Greenwich Maple Man]

All tubing on high vacuum!

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

18,000 on tubing, 2 buckets

[Sugarmaker]

600 on tubing, several buckets around the sugarhouse for looks.
Regards,
Chris

[rayi]

I only have about 10 five gallon pails the rest (close to 300) are on tubing

[Mountain Winds Farm]

coming up on 1800 taps all on pipeline ,high vacuum. 6 or 8 buckets for the ambiance factor in front of the house for the open houses

[harrison6jd]

at one point i had all 65 on buckets. now i have 100 on tubing and a handful of buckets for nostalgia and the kids.

[unc23win]

People still use buckets.

My words exactly ha

[Mike R.]

150 on vacuum and 20 on buckets around the yard for nostalgia and for visitors. I collect all the sap from buckets with the snowmobile.

[red maples]

500 on vacuum 25 on gravity tubing and 30 buckets.

[Russell Lampron]

800 taps, 700 on high vacuum tubing and 100 buckets.

[stewardsdairy]

350 buckets and hope to have about 1200 on tubing this year.

[sjdoyon]

10,400+ on vacuum. Grew up working on relatives farms which were all buckets. Not even one decorative bucket around our sugarhouse.

[toquin]

I have about 500 5 gal buckets for sale, what does that tell ya.

[maple flats]

1250 tubing on vacuum, last had 1 bucket in '08 for show. might get up to 200 more this season on tubing/vacuum.

[Paul VT]

180 buckets last year. Just bought 90 more. I need the exercise! :lol:

[CPlace]

Using buckets on roadside trees and around the house, the rest is on gravity tubing.

[Michael Greer]

I had 180 buckets last year, and will probably put up 50 more this year. Widely scattered roadside trees don't lend themselves to tubing.

[Drew Pond Maple]

21 buckets, remaining 119 on tubing. More trees on tubing next year

[ennismaple]

People still use buckets.

Every maple operation needs buckets! We have.... let me count....1...2...3 on a tree at the sugar camp for the kids to gather, the other 4300 are all on vacuum tubing.

[GeneralStark]

500+ on high vac. + 5 buckets. About 60 buckets for sale.

[Kacey small scale maple]

Close to 200 on buckets NO tubeing yet!!

[Randy Brutkoski]

that's it, 1 is going on the utility pole out front. Maybe it will fill up with power.

[christopherh]

250 on buckets and 200 on tubing

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

225 tubing.......20 sap sacks
just sap sacks or are they the new fancy vac sap sacks?

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

that's it, 1 is going on the utility pole out front. Maybe it will fill up with power.
why are buckets big deal for you? others do the collecting for you you sit in the rocker at draw and sleep:lol: I believe we have a picture of that let me dig it up

[maple2]

4500 on tubing, 2 buckets

[Brad W Wi]

400 pails. I'm a tradionalist on some things.

[Flat Rock Farmers]

We do 176 buckets. Hoping to hit 200 this year if we can find some more at a reasonable price.
That's good enough for us. We're trying to keep it a hobby and not make it a job!

[MN Jake]

150 sap sacs and 20 in a windrow that my tubing just showed up for.

[whalems]

1000 all on vac tubing and all come right to the sugar house!

[tuckermtn]

last year, 1200 taps on tubing, 200 buckets. My best buckets outperformed (both in terms of volume and sweetness) my best vacuum system in 2011 and 2013. Vacuum better in 2012.

this years tapping numbers still to be determined. depending on if the folks helping collect want to do buckets.

[The dairy farmer]

This thread is doing better than I thought !

[Rangdale]

All buckets with anywhere from 1-4 trees with tubing per bucket. Trees are WAY to far apart for anything else.

[shane hickey]

1700 buckets 16000+ tubing

[umpwood1]

200 buckets..I tried some tubing, too many deer.

[Run Forest Run!]

All buckets and recycled plastic jugs.

[Trevor5]

5 buckets last year, up to 10 or 15 buckets this year.

[tcross]

90ish buckets this year. 150 on vacuum!

[maplwrks]

why are buckets big deal for you? others do the collecting for you you sit in the rocker at draw and sleep:lol: I believe we have a picture of that let me dig it up

THATS WHY HE LOOKS SO TIRED WHEN i STOP DOWN!!

[morningstarfarm]

Roughly 3000 on tubing...50 buckets around the sugar house and 100 buckets on telephone poles...

[Cabin]

First three years gallon cranberry juice jugs. This year 15 5 gallon buckets and 8 gallon jugs hope to get at least 30 trees tapped.

[Big_Eddy]

150-200 all buckets.

Syruping is family time for us. My 4 boys get off the bus. We hook up the tank to the tractor and we go "visit the trees". 4 boys, 2 parents and we could collect 150-200 buckets in 30-60 mins. With only 2 boys left at home now, it takes 45-90 mins, but it's quality time in the woods with the kids. Best hour of the day. Wouldn't miss it for the world.

Once they have all left home - I'll consider tubing. But by then my annual syrup consumption should have dropped too.

[slammer3364]

Do about 90 buckets,wife grandkids son and myself. When everyone is around takes about 45 mins.Its a family thing.Not to change things up but there is a neat little article in "Farm and Ranch" mag if anyone wants to check it out

[bobsklarz]

230 buckets, 50 bags. I don't do the gym thing!

[PACMAN]

600 on tubbing for 2014.

[brookledge]

1200 on vacuum 2 or 3 buckets at the most

[Sanford MI Mapler]

20- 5 gallon buckets, shooting for about 50 this year.

[MJFlores]

I'm small time, just my young son and I. We hang 15 buckets and collect at night after school / work. We may pickup 3 more buckets and taps this year but not sure. 15 keeps us pretty busy! Not sure how others do it with 50 plus!!

[Mr Sugar Maple]

We have 200 pails, gather with 4 wheeler with 65 gallon tank in a atv cart. If the snow is too deep we use a snowmobile and a large otter sled with a tow bar. strap the tank down with tie downs. when the tank is full we pump it out , and send it down the hill thru a one inch main line to our bulk tank by the sugar house. two of us can complete the job in a few hours or less.

[Bentley Wood Maple]

375 taps on lines, maybe 50 taps that group together into 15 gallon barrels we gather that wouldn't work on the gravity system. About 10 buckets in front of the sugar house on the road, mainly as advertisement. I do miss the satisfaction of gathering the 180 buckets we started with .But when you live on a hill and your sugarhouse is at the bottom its plain silly not to take advantage of gravity lines. I do really miss that drip drip drip sound of sap hitting an empty bucket

[stephen wheeler]

We use about 125 5-gallon buckets, we strap on the snowshoes and do it the old fashioned way. :cry: Actually we do enjoy the fresh air and exercise. (make that - we need the exercise). Our trees are mostly very spread out over 19 acres. We have a lot of hemlock, oak, beech etc. with scattered maples throughout. We may add a hundred more buckets over the next few years if we have time.

[cpmaple]

1100 on vac, 3-4 hundred on gravity and 20 (5 gal) pails on trees lower than my main line

[KV Sappers]

I have 20 on buckets. Like some, I need the exercise.

[bowtie]

Last year 300 aluminum buckets on a steep side hill. This will probably be same or less unless I find a bigger evap in the next two weeks.

[Big John]

I have never gathered a bucket!!!

[Hop Kiln Road]

500+ on gravity and 100 buckets. Kinda like Tucker Mtn. buckets are on roadside sugar maples 24"- 36"+ which produce superior sap.

[Sengelaub Farms]

Almost 600 on the pipeline last year. 25 metal buckets hung along the road by the shack for that old time look.

[Dave Y]

Sold 2500 bucket this past fall all tubing this year. I hope I never have to go back to buckets as there is plenty of exercise with out them.