Oh What to do...

[Shirefisher]

20025 20026

As the sunsets on Maple season 2019, I boiled 01 gallon of maple and 8 ounces of Birch. I tapped 6 maples and 5 birch trees. It was fun. I have sugared as an assistant on and off since i was 14... Now I'm 44 with kiddos... retiring is a possibility in 10 years so I gotta find a good hobby that can make some money... Today i found myself counting my tap potential in my woods. 152 maple taps in the back woods, 30 maple taps close to the house and 30 birch taps in the back woods... So I guess since Leader Evaporator is 25 minutes away I think I may find myself there today to look at the half pint... I do have a full bay post and beam garage just begging me to put a sugarin' rig inside....

[motowbrowne]

If you're looking at 180 taps, skip the half pint and look for a used 2x6. Get yourself set up right from the get go.

[Sugarmaker]

Great pictures! I did something similar at about the same age. Get right sized form the start then you wont have to expand as soon.
Good luck.

Regards,
Chris

[Mead Maple]

If you're looking at 180 taps, skip the half pint and look for a used 2x6. Get yourself set up right from the get go.

Agreed.

Especially if you don’t have an RO. Otherwise every minute of retirement time will be spent feeding the arch LOL


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Woody77]

After 20+ years of screwing around dad and I bought a new 2×6. I should have done that in the beginning.we ran 306 taps this year with no RO. With ease I see myself shooting for the RO and 500 real soon. Just my advise spend your money right once not wrong twice. Get the sugar bush set up as efficiently as you can now and provision for expansion.

[Ed R]

After finishing off the contents of the 4x14 evaporator on our finisher as a teen one year, I realized I never wanted to boil without a flue pan ever again. I'm boiling about 70 taps on a 2x6 without an ro And I find its a good fit with my full time job. As mentioned above, keep your eyes open for a good condition 2x6 or similar size.

[Shirefisher]

Thank you all for the responses. I will be seeing the possibilities this weekend at the various Open houses during the Maple Fest in St. Albans Vermont.

[maple flats]

A long story on my first season. I bought a used half pint in real nice condition. I got is set up, firebriched it and was ready. I already had plenty of dry wood.
Then I started tapping trees. I tapped 27 at first and waited a few days for the first sap flow. That went well and I added more taps and repeated that until I had 70 taps. Then the trees really turned on and I had to boil for 20 hrs straight and still fell behind. I ended up having to dump some spoiled sap because I had more good sap and could not boil it all. That was just 70 taps. I see no way for a half pint to do 150+ taps unless you have an RO, even then it would be a long boil. My average boil was 6 GPH evaporation.
I sold that evaporator and bought a used 2x6 with drop flues for seasons 2-4. With that I got 24-27 GPH.

[highlandcattle]

Mant years ago we bpught a brand new Half Punt
We both worked,so this was just dabbling in making some syrup. Never imaginwd we had so many maples on our place. 15 acres just in the back woods. That half pint was very nice. For some backyard trees. I think I sold it on ebay within a year or 2. Upgraded to a 2x4 used. Loved it. Added more taps. Got rid of buckets. Went to pipeline and vaccum. By the time we sold tge farm a couple of years ago we had 500 taps. After the 2x4 Grimm Lightening(best ever) we got a gorgeous 2x8 cdl. Illness ended that. Downsized to a Mason 2x4 and Ron loved that. Sold the extra sap. Sugaring is an addiction. Have fun

[Shirefisher]

Thanx for your insight. I have been looking at the mason 2x4 xl. It could be the best overall rig for my needs and I could buy the bucket ro....

[maple flats]

Another thing to look at is your possible max tap count. At just 152, maybe even 200 in 10 years, you would need to focus on specialty value added products to make much if any money. Cash flow yes, but more than enough to cover expenses not likely if not doing mostly or entirely value added products.
You would also IMHO need to find more trees to tap, maybe friendly neighbors for a little syrup or a lease to get more production.

[motowbrowne]

Another thing to look at is your possible max tap count. At just 152, maybe even 200 in 10 years, you would need to focus on specialty value added products to make much if any money. Cash flow yes, but more than enough to cover expenses not likely if not doing mostly or entirely value added products.
You would also IMHO need to find more trees to tap, maybe friendly neighbors for a little syrup or a lease to get more production.

I don't know, maybe I'm optimistic, but if he's already got a building, a used 2x6 for $3000 and a DIY RO isn't crazy expensive. If he put 150 on vacuum and made 75 gallons of syrup on average every year, that could be fairly profitable. Not gonna get rich, no, but if sold as $10 pints, that's $6000 a year in sales. Won't be able to buy every fancy gadget, but a guy could make some spending money.