Early budding

[Jerome]

My maples budded in December and January during the warm spell is it worth tapping them or will the sap be bitter????

[Russell Lampron]

I think they will be ok. The only way to tell is to tap them and taste the syrup. Tap a couple of them and boil down the sap to make a small amount of syrup to taste. The trees went back into dormancy when the cold weather got here so they will be putting out new buds when they come out of dormancy again.

Russ

[Cardigan99]

I noticed the same thing on some of our reds by the stream around the first of the year.

[802maple]

Reds only need to hear that they will be getting some warm weather and they start to swell like a virgin in a strip club, but they will make good syrup for along time after that. I have seen reds practically give off shade and they were still good flavored, try what Russ said and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

[royalmaple]

I may be the self proclaimed king of reds, at least after this season. They are about 96.9% of my trees. I'll have to get the actual percentage later, for kicks. I have had them almost pop and start showing full bloom before the sap went crappy. Usually the season ends before anything goes buddy. Might be making commercial syrup at the end, but anyone tapping anything will be doing the same thing at the end of the season, if they are going to the last drop.

I think the misleading thing is the buds on reds are more pronounced than the sugars. At least early on. Heck some of the reds at my house have looked this way since November. And they weren't growing a few weeks ago when it was -20.

had to take a min and run back upstairs in the watch tower, plugged two more tree rats. I don't know where they are coming from. That is two per day for the last three days. And one was on the fly after the last shot, peeling off across the snow to the hideout.
Maybe later on he'll get his.

[Dave Y]

Royalmaple,
If you spent more time in the fall hunting them tree rats you wouldn't have to worry about them now. Beside the make a real good pot pie. Let me now when you get your turpintine made. I know there is a market for it.

[royalmaple]

Dave-

Give me your address and I'll send you a box full of them.

Those buggers are canibals too, never thought they were but I have shot several feeding off the carcases of the others. It looks like a massacre in my back yard. I'll have to post a picture when I go in so you can see the carnage. Funny stuff.

I'm almost out of my pellets, gonna have to move up to the .22 next. I got a box of 500 shells ready.

[Revi]

We had the grey squirrels making a nest behind our solar hot water panels this fall. I shot a bunch of them, but what finally worked was cutting off the limbs that ran to the roof. They are persistent. It's hard to get a shot when you are concerned about hitting those panels!

They chewed some of our tubing at the woodlot too. The little beasts! Still, you have to admire their tenacity. I don't shoot them unless they are messing with my house or something. There are too many up in the woods.

Have you ever tried eating them? Those big grey squirrels have a lot of meat on them. Some say they taste like chicken. I used to get squirrel on a stick when I lived in Guatemala. It was tasty!

[royalmaple]

I use to throw some feed on the ground for them, figuring I'd be nice. But when they started giving hell to my feeders and chewing them, the tides turned. Now when I see one I shoot it. Which has been more and more recently. I am only getting red's, I shot one grey, but don't see them too much around here. So unless the freezer is out of deer, and the wife hasn't done much shopping I'll let the crows eat what I shoot.

I don't imagine there is much meat on a red? Maybe a spoonful.

[Daren]

just a quick note...if you get even a short freeze after they bud, they reset just fine. We have had such a cold snap...including today..high of 0 to +5 and lows to about -15, the sap next week should as clear as can be.

[New Hope Mapleman]

I thought you guys might be intersted. Last Saturday the sap ran a bit and then the wind picked up big time. Dad hauled home sap and I found a bunch (near to fifty) small round balls in the filter. I guess they blew into the tank around the inspection flap for the releaser. At first I thought it was a nut or something from the varmets; but no they were buds. I saw one that had a bunch of green in it and so after tearing into it I found out it was a neatly rolled leaf. How cool is that!!
No I didn't save them.