Most Taps without employees

[sweetmusicj]

Greetings from half way across the world!

Sorry if this has been asked, but my internet connection is slow here so it limits my searching ability of archives.

Was wondering what the most taps you think or have seen can be done with just one person (and a little help from family and friends).

I need something to get me through the day here and it's been a grand idea of getting into the Maple Syrup business when my time in the military is complete (I have some novice experience when I was a kid and convinced my grandpa to start making maple syrup with me). Just curious as to the tap limits of someone who wanted to tap as many trees as possible without the hassle of employees (assuming I could find that dream piece of land where everything was perfect).

Thanks for any info!

Nathan

[KevinS]

60 taps can be more than one person can handle if you are doing it on a turkey frier..
So really how many taps one person can handle, really comes down to how big of an investment you can pony up. and can you or will you make it a full time job.

[Russell Lampron]

I have 800 taps here and a full time job. My son and son in law help me as well as other family members but I have no employees. It helps that all of my taps are on my own land and that I have reverse osmosis and a nice evaporator.

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

I have a part time job and have ran 1400 taps in the past, this yr I added 900, up to 2300. I have a friend that helps, but for the most part it is a solo operation. I plan to add a couple more thousand this summer. I think 1 person can handle most of it. Taping, running lines, etc. Boiling is pretty hard with 1 man. I ran a 4*12 by myself for years. Now I have a 6*16 and am a little scared to run by myself. Mostly can I fire it fast enough, and can I filter syrup fast enough.

I think if you want to get up to 4-5,000 taps (the amount I think it takes to make any money), you will need part time labor during the season.

Otherwise, it all depends on how in shape you are. Or want to be. If you have a gym membership, you will cancel it if you grow a maple business.

Good luck
Ben

[Mark]

My son and I do 20,000 taps, wife helps if she is not at her full time job.

[Homestead Maple]

My son and I do 20,000 taps, wife helps if she is not at her full time job.

Is sugaring a full time thing for you and your son or do you have a regular job also?

[slybird353]

Is sugaring a full time thing for you and your son or do you have a regular job also?There is all that time that they spend on the Florida beaches working on a tan!

[peckfarm]

1100 taps, no help whatsoever. In fact, I boil in the day to keep the "helping" party folks at bay. Auto draw, R.O. and the Vortex make the operation more efficient. It is busy though and requires a lot of focus, and I do not like to entertain visitors. When people stop by I am nice but I put on fm headphones and ignore them after about 5 minutes, even my wife and kids. I can see leveling off at 1200-1300 until the sap haulers get useful.

[spud]

I have 6500 taps and sell my sap. I plan to add another 2-3000 taps for next year but still sell sap. In my area you can make $8.00-10.00 per tap selling sap. In other areas of the state you might only get $5.00-7.50 per tap selling sap. Depending on how much income you need a person can make a decent living with my size operation and sell sap only. Good luck to you and thank you for your service.

Spud

[sweetmusicj]

Hey guys (and gals?),

Thanks for the info. Right now in my head when the time comes to look for a property I want one with at least a 5,000 tap potential. I'm looking primarily in northern MN, WI, and the UP of Michigan (I have yet to research how common it is to find a maple concentration in the Midwest high enough to get that many taps in under 170 acres...am I crazy?). It will not be my sole source of income, looking to combine it with a job in the Guard or Reserves (the health insurance savings are huge and pay not bad for weekend/month and two weeks/year...plus I enjoy the military). I am also an auctioneer (well, was before I joined the military) and will continue to do that as well since I enjoy it. I imagine I will have family help, but I just don't want to have to rely on them so they can come and go as they please.

Planning this dream helps get me through my day(s) until I'm back to my family so thanks for the info!

Nathan

[Thad Blaisdell]

I have 10,000 and that I can handle fairly easily by myself. The total number really depends on the setup. If you are hauling sap the number goes way down. The amount of time involved in hauling is way to high. So when you look for a piece of property make sure the slope is right, or at least that ther is power at the bottom of the slope. I know that all things are possible but if you are buying and have choices go as easy as possible.

[wdchuck]

To follow up on Thad's comment, my Father and I deal with 2500 taps, but have to haul every bit of it from a mile and a half away. He hauls, I deal with the RO and cleanup, and we're both in the sugarhouse for most of the boiling. We could do more, but it wouldn't work very well if I had to do things all alone.

[Ittiz]

Hey guys (and gals?),

Thanks for the info. Right now in my head when the time comes to look for a property I want one with at least a 5,000 tap potential. I'm looking primarily in northern MN, WI, and the UP of Michigan (I have yet to research how common it is to find a maple concentration in the Midwest high enough to get that many taps in under 170 acres...am I crazy?). It will not be my sole source of income, looking to combine it with a job in the Guard or Reserves (the health insurance savings are huge and pay not bad for weekend/month and two weeks/year...plus I enjoy the military). I am also an auctioneer (well, was before I joined the military) and will continue to do that as well since I enjoy it. I imagine I will have family help, but I just don't want to have to rely on them so they can come and go as they please.

Planning this dream helps get me through my day(s) until I'm back to my family so thanks for the info!

Nathan

I'd think most 170 acre properties would have well over a 5k tap potential. I'm not sure about the forest density in the midwest, but here on the east coast I'd think you could manage that on a couple dozen acres with the right kind of woods.

[Jeff E]

I am in northern WI and have 2500 taps on 40 acres, if that helps.
One thing that has not been mentioned is a modern tubing system vs buckets.
Doing tubing allows you to do a lot more taps.
I did 350 buckets and a 2x8 evaporator myself and worked just as hard as I do now with 2500 taps, buying lots of sap from others, and running a 3x12 with an RO.

Its all about efficiency! And then its all about the trees you can get connected to your system.

I agree, thank you for serving, and PM me if you get to NW Wisconsin, and want to see my system.

[regor0]

I just wanted to add, you said you were looking in the UP or the north in general. I'm in the UP north of Marquette. There are easier places to tap than here, I was putting tubing up yesterday and a a couple times went up to my armpits in snow, with snowshoes. I love it here because I love to snowmobile and love winter, but if I were to do this for a source of income, I'd find an easier place to sugar.

[sweetmusicj]

Thanks for the info (especially the 2500 taps on 40 acres in WI and the invite). Maybe I can reduce the acreage requirements in my search a tad (though more land is more fun to run around in!). I'm from SE MN and would love to have an operation there, but the land is too expensive due to it's proximity to the cities so I'm looking at "goin' north". I'm a little embarrassed to say I don't know the Maple Density around these parts since I grew up in the country and my grandpa owned a logging company, but better late than never to learn.

Yeah, I was thinking about how the snowfall in the UP would probably complicate things greatly...

My family is looking for properties near my hometown with maples and my grandpa just passed a lead, but he thinks there's about 500 Maples to be tapped on the property which is short of what I'm looking to do.

I've been reading the Maple Syrup Producer's manual religiously here! It's great, but of course a lot of things I'd have to see in person, like the tubing system.

Alright, time to get to work.

~Nathan

[MidMichMaple]

Hey guys (and gals?),

Thanks for the info. Right now in my head when the time comes to look for a property I want one with at least a 5,000 tap potential. I'm looking primarily in northern MN, WI, and the UP of Michigan (I have yet to research how common it is to find a maple concentration in the Midwest high enough to get that many taps in under 170 acres...am I crazy?).

I read a study that said that Michigan is the most underutilized state for maple production, with the highest number of potential taps of any state. Only a very tiny percentage of the maples are tapped in the upper Midwest. By contrast, Vermont and the rest of New England has a very strong "maple culture" and taps a higher percentage of available trees. Point being, the area of the country you are considering is probably a great place to look, with literally "untapped potential." :)

Maybe this nifty map will help you. It shows concentration of sugar maples:

9596

[ennismaple]

If you want to do it alone you need the sap to come straight into your sugar camp. Start the vacuum pump in the morning (ideally it's on autostart), go walk lines while your raw sap tank fills up, start your RO, fire up the evaporator and fill drums until you're out of sap. If you want to fill retail containers while you boil it gets more difficult to focus on boiling. It can be done but I find I can't keep up unless I have help to fill and label.

[unc23win]

If you want to do it alone you need the sap to come straight into your sugar camp. Start the vacuum pump in the morning (ideally it's on autostart), go walk lines while your raw sap tank fills up, start your RO, fire up the evaporator and fill drums until you're out of sap. If you want to fill retail containers while you boil it gets more difficult to focus on boiling. It can be done but I find I can't keep up unless I have help to fill and label.

Ditto hauling kills the on your own thing fast. I do almost everything on my own. I have all my sap coming right in to sugarhouse. I get some help when boiling, but not much. The auto draw and oil fired rig allow for some time to get other things done like bottling but they take second priority. I am only at 1500 taps though.