April Journal

[ibby458]

Over half way to my 2007 goal!

[tapper]

1/3 of the way to 1 quart per tap. I might make it!

[Fred Henderson]

I have no goals in this except to make a good syrup. Ice fishing is going to be my next hobbie.

[Sugarmaker]

OK Tubing experts:) ,
I want to try to get the remaining water out of my tubing, that I have taken off the trees.

I have rinsed the tubing with a very mild Clorox solution followed by generous rinsing with fresh water. They look very clean to me.

When coiled up this looks like a inch to several inches of water remains in the bottom of most of the loops.
I would like to get this all out so the lines and drops are as near dry as possible.

Open to any ideas.

Regards,
Sugarmaker

[ennismaple]

Air compressor.

[Sugarmaker]

Ennismaple,
Well that's what I have tried so far and seems to work good.
I have a smaller older water /oil filter that I have placed on the end of the air line. Tomorrow I am going to get some fittings to rig up a much better filter system and blow out the rest of them. Thanks for the suggestion.:)

I did get the evaporator cleaned. I rinsed the evaporator after the last boil then filled with fresh water and 6 gallons of white vinegar. brought the temp up with a small fire and brushed the pan while warm. I let this set over night and brushed and used a aggressive scouring pad on the tough spots and corners, drained and rinsed again. Should be ready for the hoods to be reinstalled tomorrow. I also soak all the copper parts in the solution and they come out looking like a new penny.

Have 8 gallon of dark syrup out of the freezer to can and restock the shelves.
Just received the maple jugs from the association and also received 250 plastic containers for maple mustard.

Not sure if I mentioned but we lost 85% of our bees this winter. Not sure if it was this new colony colapse disease or just the extreme cold weather.

Our web site is in the process of being rebuilt. Adam is using a new soft ware package "Flash" to creat it this time . Its up but still need some work to get it finished. It should open on all computers no matter what screen size. the previous version had some limitations.

Regards,
Sugarmaker

[brookledge]

Chris
I saw on the news that the bees were dieing from parasites all over the place even in Europe

[Sugarmaker]

Brookledge,
Well maybe that's what we have here also. Stay tuned. Thanks for the input.

Sugarmaker

[Dave Y]

Chris,
I understand It may have been the weather. There is a bee man up you way that lost 1300 hives. Wiped him out.

[super sappy]

I do not like bees but I understand how important they are. About 2 weeks ago I hung a flat filter on my clothes line outside my sugar house. I looked out and the thing was covered with honey bees. I called an old friend and he came over and scooped them up. This is the second time in as many years that this has happened to me .Last year I was doing a pine trim job and after returning from lunch I found my miter saw covered with bees .For some reason they seem to like me.I hope that the diseases that are killing the bees are not in our area. -SS

[cropseyvillemark]

SS, I'm afraid it's already here. 2 weeks ago we lost 19 out of 22 hives in a 7 day period.Not a clue,not a trace,not a track or a footprint.Just gone,with feed still in the hives.Very strange.

[andrew martin]

Well, I finally got most of my buckets put away and my evaporator cleaned this week. Leaving sap in the flue and syrup pan for three weeks while it is 70-80 degrees outside really cleans the pans up nice - and it sure stinks. Since I was able to accomplish these year end functions, I finished early at work today and decided I needed to start getting ready for next year. So I went to the sugar bush and started clearing brush and deadfalls so I could access more trees for next year. I could not believe the buckeyes are in full leaf out already, and since they were shading some maple trees, they were the first trees to go. It felt good to rev up the chain saw again and be out in the woods. The wild phlox is beautiful this year.

Andrew

[Sugarmaker]

Cropsyvillemark,
Wow bad news about your bees! :( It will be a rebuilding year for me looking for local swarms.

Chris

[TapME]

Heard a peice on NBC this eve about the loss of bees in the US.
stats say up to 50% and a warning that crop production will be down because of it.

Hope this year they rebuild and gain in numbers for you.

[super sappy]

I took the doctors advise and took it easy on Wed. I gased up the car(ouchhh!) and went for a drive over around southern vermont. I stopped at a few spots and found out that most of the sugarmakers are in bad shape. It seemed to be mostly doom and gloom. Some of these producers are down by 75% from last year.Some have pulled taps and some never tapped due to the caterpillars.. I was suprised to see alot of guys using steel barrels for collection (lots of rust.) And I guess the other thing is that I noticed alot of roadside tubing that seemed to run uphill. I also checked out a real nice tubing system on vacuum over by Rupert VT.I am ushally so busy this time of year I never get to see what is going on-SS

[3% Solution]

Hey Chris,
Do you folks line the bees in the fall and take them?
Back when my dad had bees he would feed them in the spring and would add some stuff called Sodium Sulphur Thizole.
Our swarms would get a bug of some sort and dad would feed them up with that stuff and they would be fine.
What would happen is the larve would never mature and die in the cells.
What's happening with yours?

Dave

[Sugarmaker]

Dave,
Sounds like your Dad was deeper into them than I. As a novice I have feed them in the spring and fall in years past. But last year I did not medicate or feed. Not sure if that could have been part of my problem? We do have mites on all the bees and this can be treated with Apistan strips in the spring and fall.

I have not heard of the Sodium Sulphur Thizole.


Chris

[3% Solution]

Hi Chris,
I have been thinking about the bees most of the day and have remembered that the Sodium Sulpher Thizole was used for American Foul Brood.
I am not sure where he found out about the medication, it may have been the Dept. of Agriculture. They would come to inspect them once a year.
Sounds like you should have medicated them, oh well live and learn. But then again you don't know!
Do you line bees?
Lining was always a fun time in the early fall.
Visited a sugarhouse last weekend and my wife had a honey bee flying around her. The folks that owned the place have a couple swarms.

Dave

[Sugarmaker]

Dave,
I never heard the term as in line the bees. Please explain. Thanks.
I was torn about the medication. I would like to get away from as much medication as possible. First is it is not cheap plus I don't like applying it, and would like to stay as natural as possible. We don't have enough season length to get the medications on and off prior or after the honey flows.
I really think some or most of mine died due to the extreme cold temps in Feb.

Chris

[Pete33Vt]

From what I have heard its going to be rough on beekeepers this year. For some reason there was a pretty severe die-off. No one is sure why. I am glad know I didn't geta chance to get into it this year. It will be interesting to find out the reason behind this die off. Good luck to you Chris on getting back up to the amount you had.

[3% Solution]

Good morning Chris,
Well to line bees you do the following;
Catch a bee on a piece of Goldenrod or Aster (usually after the first frost).
With this neat little box you have you place it over a piece of honeycomb which has sugar and water mixture on it (2 cups of sugar / 1 cup of water).
The bee will land on the comb when you put your hand over the box. The bee will fill up on the mixture and fly back to the hive.
The bee will return alone a couple of times, then when she is confident of the supply will start bringing back a few friends.
Oh yeah almost forgot, put a couple of dobs of Oil of Anise around as an attractant, not too much, as you will get a headache and get the bees drunk if you use too much.
Now you mark one of the bees with a paste made of spit (that's right spit) and chalk. When that bee leaves you start timing, when that marked bee returns that's how far you are from the hive, let that bee make a few trips so as to get the time down. My dad always figured 11 minutes to the mile.
Always watch which way they go, they go pretty straight. In the Fall the ski is bright blue and not hard to follow them as they are a black spot that stands right out.
Now comes the fun part, walk the direction the bees are coming from say 200yards, open the bottle of Anise and wait a few minutes. If your on line the bees that have never been to the comb will come down through the trees to find the smell. When you have gone by the tree they are in (bee tree) no bees will show or if you are off the line so move around a bit.
Now when the air gets full of bees, start looking around as you are very, very close. You may want to set up another comb an mixture and mark another bee with different color chalk.
Basically look for insects (bees) going in and out of the trees and soon wulla you have it, the tree the bees are in! Look everywhere, they can be high or low. We've almost put our hand over the hole before!!
Now get permission to cut the tree down (usually the trees are bad any way) and take the bees and honey home. FEED THE HONEY BACK TO THEM as they need it for winter.
And that's all there is to it!!
What did you wrap the hives with?
We used plastic one year and lost every hive, the inside had condensation and kept them damp, that's what killed them.
Years before and after we would wrap them in #15 felt tar paper, that stuff breathes, but also keeps the wind out.
I think my dad used that stuff once for mites, is it like a dust?
Don't be afraid of medicating, it's like you taking a med, it's for the good.
Honey bees are very fragile little insects and sometimes you have to help them.

Hope this answers you question.

Dave

[Sugarmaker]

3% and lobstafari,
Thanks for all the information on Bee lining. I and probably some others learned a thing or two today. Very interesting. I visited the web site which describes the competition. And I see how you could possibly find a bee tree with Dave's explanation. I will have to mention it to some of my beekeeper friends.

The Apistan is in a plastic strip form and you need 2 strips per deep hive body of bees.

Regards,
Chris

[Pete33Vt]

Well sense the weather doesn't want to straighten out, me and my uncle took a road trip today to check out Ryan's rig. We meet up with him and Jerry, had a great visit. And Ryans setup is great, great welding job and very nice sugarhouse setup. I can tell why he calls it Breezy Lane sugarworks. Good thing the wind wasn't blowing to hard. Got back home and checked the sap situation. Nothing happening here, but it did warm up throughout the day. I should have some to boil tomorrow. My uncle pulled in 120 gals from his bush, so looks like we have enough to fire up the rig and make some steam. Hope to keep going afew more days. Not much else here.

Again GREAT setup Ryan and thanks agin to you and Jerry for your time to chat. Good luck on the rest of your season.

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

Thanks! I'm sorry you couldn't see it boiling, but it hadn't run much at that time. the weather is starting to look better for a few more days anyway. And yes, ALWAYS windy up there. One thing about boiling yourself...it's HARD to find the time to get around to some other places.

[ibby458]

Finally finished boiling off 2 back to back gusher runs. Averaged a tad over 1000 gallons of sap/day for 2 days. Unfortunately, it was all grade B or C, and the sugar content was a LOT lower than normal. Still - dark syrup is in good demand, and 1.7% sap is better than a lot of what some people get!

Talked to another Amish friend yesterday. He's pulling his 1900 taps at just over half his normal crop. He doesn't like to make dark syrup.

[Fred Henderson]

I am also going to start pulling taps today. I see sugar maples starting to bud.

[3% Solution]

Just got out of a gusher myself.
Friday ended up with 184 gal. of sap, now that equates to roughly 10.5 hours of boiling, not my cup of tea!
I gave 65 to a guy close to here. It was 2.5%.
Boiled for a little over 7 hours (clean up and all) picked another 2 3/4 gal.
We gathered yesterday and brought in some of next years wood. Going to boil during this storm today, nothing else to do, got to stay on the hill today.
Over half the taps are either not running or just not giving up good sap (1.8 or lower).
My two lines that are up in elevation were doing good, but almost stopped yesterday.
I think this is the last week to get anything for sap, it's not going to freeze up at night.
Stay safe!

Dave

[ibby458]

We gathered 250 gallons of colored sap on Sunday. Not nice stuff, but it made 7 gallons of dark syrup. At $1.65/pound - - - - - - It'll pay for the jugs & prefilters I bought this year. Gotta go pick up at the amish farm. I expect he'll have a good load for me.

[3% Solution]

Done in Newport, NH
34 gallons, 1/2 gallon in the pan, will get that Friday!
Getting more like sunbathing weather!!!
Oh well, brushfire season is only a week away, here we go again!!!!!!

Dave

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Wuz out nar tha pooch hooch Tanite and suz 2 fings fyin rund and cot 1 in mi hund/I'll bea a sunz a gunz tha wuz muzketo's yup sir re 2 uf tha som Birch's fyin rund my pups...

Must be time to tap the birch trees......Misquito's are out!!!

[Mike]

Any one looking for used equipement should call the Maple companys here. Went to the open house's yesterday and there was a ton of usd stuff fo sale....Lots of used evaporators and a bunch of RO's and vaccum pumps...Nows the time to order your stuff for next season....

[Pete33Vt]

Yeah, I saw the list at CDL prices seemed a bit high for me. A 400 gal stainless steel bulk tank for 725 come on???? Maybe Its just me. Alot of there used stuff at CDL sounded not that hot.

[markcasper]

WISCONSIN: I was at 2 auctions today. 300 gallon Mueller= $375.00

150 gallon VanVetter= $325.00. Both of these had compressors with

I had someone tell me at the hog trough that clean stainless in our area has reached $1.75 lb.

Another said he scrapped a 250 gallon bulk tank recently and came home with $900.00

[Pete33Vt]

I have a friend that works in the metal fab. business and they use alot of stainless.He said yesterday that the price of stainless is skyrocketing. He also said if your into stocks stainless is the one to get.

[Parker]

HHHMMM mabey I should call Polirized and see what they are paying??? Scrap the 600 gall=2500 gall+1200 gallon stainless tanks I have?

[ibby458]

All the stuff is out of the woods and piled around the house, waiting for the scrubba scrubba stage. (Wish the Maple Fairy would pop in to do the cleaning!)

First order of business is to build a bucket washer. After examining all the alternatives, I cursed, and bit the bullet to buy a Leader Bucket Brush. No Way is that thing worth the money they charge! Still - I had to have it, so I bought one. It better hold up good or Leader's gonna hear from me!

[markcasper]

With the price of stainless guys, we all better hinker down and remove things from easily accessed tanks, like valves, covers, lids, what have you and get them up closer to our houses.

Just thinking, if I went out now, I could make a 15 mile loop and come up with 500 lbs of stainless from sap tanks in an hour or two.

[Pete33Vt]

Glad I'm in Vermont and all my tanks are inacessable from the road!!!!
LOL

[Fred Henderson]

Just remember the old saying" I'd walk a mile for a camel".

[Mike]

Pete, Im looking for a 800 gal +/- old style bulk tank....flat top for a holding tank by my vac pump........Doesnt have to be pretty, as long as it holds sap.....Mike

[danno]

OK - I've got a weird question. Does bitter syrup leave a metallic taste in your mouth?

[Pete33Vt]

Yeah some does. More than likely if your tasting metalic its from the tin jugs. Or packaged out of an old galivized barrel.
Sorry Mike mine are all round stainless tanks. I'll keep my ears open. Or you could call DICK SOULE in Berkshire. My uncle got a 600 gall flat top tank from them this year for 500.00, they might have a line on other flat tops.