How far do you travel for a Sugarbush?

[Dennis H.]

I am curious how far everyone travels to their suagrbush/'s?

I know that most have one right next to the suagerhouse, but I have also heard alot lease a sugarbush. So how far do you travel to tap those sugarbushes?

For me since this is my first ear I will be tapping a bunch of red's that are located on my little plot of land, I am also tapping a few red's in the neighbors lot. Now if everything goes well this year I will try tapping a bunch of sugar's on some land my dad has for hunting. The only downside is it is located about 20 miles away.

With gas as high as it is I was wondering how far you'all travel and is the cost of gas changing your thought on how far you will travel to the suarbush?

[sapman]

I think if you can get a good number of taps it is certainly worth it. Syrup prices need to increase to cover the increased costs. You need to determine what is a good number of taps for you. For me to drive 20 miles, I'd want at least 2-300 taps on tubing. I already do 500+ buckets near me, which ends up being a 35 mile route or so. But I'd love a good tubing setup with vacuum, even a half hour away. Now turning on the vacuum pump coud be kind of problem.

Tim

[Parker]

I have a bush I tap that is 14 miles from my house,,But,,it has 800 taps,,on tubing with a thermostat that turns the vacuum pump on and off,,and a 1000 gallon tank,,,the traveling is a bear during the season (espically when it is really running everywhere ealse),,but,,for that many taps it is worth it,,,,,it is very frustrating when you think the tank will be full when you get there and there is only 50 gallons in it though,,,,I dont think I would go any further than that,,,,,

[Fred Henderson]

400 feet, I built my house at the edge of it.

[nhmaple48]

We have one woods with 2200 taps thats about 20 miles from the sugarhouse.It's set up with an insulated pump house,automatic start vacum and 4000 gal.tank.Sap is hauled with a 79 IH.all wheel drive with an 1800 gal.tank.

[Jim Brown]

Dennis; We have two bushes. First one is six(6) miles from the sugarhouse and we have 400 there on vac. They are within sight of our daughters house and she mans the gen and the pumps. We have a 425 gallon tank there. Second one is 12 miles from the house and we have 500 there now and we will expand to 2-3000 in the future.This is a lease and we have a 7 year lease with a 7 year option. The land owners house is with in sight of the trees(right along his back yard) and he will start and stop the gen and the pumps.We also have a 425 gallon tank there.We transport sap with by Chevy pick up and 235 gallon tank on it and a 235 gallon caged tank on a trailer.

Jim

[Sugarmaster]

Most of our sugar bushes are within a ten mile radis around my farm but they are in different sides of my township. Two tank trucks 1 takes each side and gathers. Then I have 1 bush that is 16 miles away but the pick up time is longer. Takes about 1 1/2 hour to go over empty the tanks and then drive back. I agree with Sapman if the number of taps is good take it.
Sugarmaster

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I live about 27 miles from the sugarhouse and all of my trees are within .5 miles of the sugarhouse in 3 different bushes.

[Mark-NH]

We have 2 bushes that we travel to. They both have about 225 taps. The good news is that they are only a couple miles from the sugar house. We have a couple trucks with tanks so someone is usually available to go collect. I can't count the number of times I've gone to check only to find there was not enough to collect. If they were more than 10 miles away, I would want to line someone up to eyeball them before trucking over.

We run about 100 buckets around the sugar house as well. For those of you that only run tubing or have not collected buckets for years, I highly recommend putting buckets out. It makes you appreciate your tubing that much more.

[davey]

My sugarhouse is in my barn out behind the house, but the sugarbush is 3 miles down the road. I haul my home-made trailer with two 300 gallon tanks on it over with my old Dodge, unhook it, hook it to my 1940 Farmall H, gather sap, unhook it from the tractor, hook it back up to the truck, haul it home and transfer it into an old dairy tank. Anyone have a wide front end for an H? My narrow front is kind of scary in the mud with a trailer load of sap behind it.

[Sugarmaker]

Our sugar bush is all rentals and we travel 25 miles or more to gather the sap. Like everyone traveling for sap you pick up whats there. Time is as big a factor as the fuel. So I am going to mostly tubing in 2008 to try to speed up the gathering process and reduce the labor. A local producer says I wont make as good as syrup with the tubing on gravity compared to buckets. Well my goal is to make better syrup on tubing and do it easier during the peak of the season ( big runs) By keeping it tight and sloped to keep sap from accumulating in the tubing I think traveling for the sap will be worth it. I will hang on to the buckets for a while to prove the tubing system works well.

Regards,
Chris

[Dennis H.]

If I do tap the sugars at my dads cabin I would have to use buckets, I don't think he would like tubing run through the woods, It would get in the way for hunting.

For me right now this is a hobby, and traveling up the 20 miles wouldn't bother me much. I was just curious how far everyone would travel before saying, that is far enough it just isn't worth it.

[maplehound]

My bush is 1/2 mile down the road. I have to run a generator to get power for the vacuum and the other pumps. Also I was told a couple weeks ago that I ma not allowed in to the woods till after Deer season or Dec. 15'th. That is what is bad about leasing a woods. I would travel 15 or 20 miles if I could have my own woods with electic available to it.

[sapman]

Chris,

Let me know how the tubing works out for you! I actually started with tubing, and switched to buckets several years ago. I felt I didn't get as much sap with tubing, but can't prove it. Plus, today's tubing is superior to the 33U I used to use. And I collected with a little 2-cycle pump, which runs well, but it was always a pain getting the thing primed between barrels. The hose just went over the top.

But, at least I didn't have to worry about buckets blowing off, or freezing to the point of damaging anything!

Hope it works out well for you!

Tim

[PATheron]

Chris- I used buckets for years. Ive always thought I got more sap than with the lines. With the lines when I was setup for gravity on a good day I would get about a gallon per tap. The thing with me is time. Both my wife and I work full time and both of us are expected to work extra especially me. It was either run tube or not make syrup in my case so I ran tube. I gotta say its real neat to come home and find all the sap just magically in the tank instead of emptying all the buckets, getting stuck in the woods, etc. I guess to compensate for less sap about all a guy can do it string more tube or run vac on some if you can find a place where theres a bunch together. Sounds like you have some nice raodside trees they usually run so good mabe you wont have much of a difference with them on the tube. Im usually working with woods trees. Theron

[maplecrest]

for my two cents in trucking sap long distances, parker one reason you make dark syrup is distance. the farther you have to truck it, THE GRADE CHANGES. you loose a grade in 20 miles of transit. 10 miles and washing the tank between trips is streching the limits of holding the grade. the faster from the tree to the rig the lighter the syrup.

[Pete33Vt]

I travel 16 miles one way to get to one bush. I actually gain a grade when its running good. The far away bush jumps my sugar content up about 1.5% so with 2% at the sugar house and 1.5% more thats 3.5% plus once I get my rig up and boiling at the beginng of the day and boil hard. I can go throught about 130-140 gals an hour and pull off the best syrup I make all season. If I lose color its due to the trees next to the sugarhouse.

[PATheron]

Seems to me like you have to go where the trees are you can tap. Closer the better but if theres none available close you have to go to where they are or not make syrup. Guess you just have to decide if its worth the expense in dollars for what you make. If your hobbying and dont care its whatever you can afford to blow. If your actually thinking you might make some money have to get the pencil out and start crunching numbers I guess. Sounds like its kind of like the deal with tapping reds. If guys got a lot of sugars he might say heck with them but if you dont have sugars and do have reds they look pretty darn good. If yards full of maple trees guy wouldnt drive to tap them but if it isnt those ones down the road look pretty darn good. Just my thought. Theron

[Revi]

I'd walk a mile for a camel... I like to have everything near the sugarhouse. We've trucked 50 to 100 gallons of sap from a couple of miles away, but I like to have everything close by. I work a full time job, and I like to collect buckets while the evaporator gets going and then boil as soon after work as I can. If I had to drive 20 miles, I'd never get boiling. It would mean that it costs around $6.40 for each load just for gas. That's if you drove 20 miles there, and 20 back, and you get around 20mpg. Fugeddaboudit!