Tapped weeks ago in Ashby - not much so far

We got all tapped out mid february, had that nice weekend flow a few weeks ago, and then nothing till yesterday and today we had a little flow, but still not much. aprox 200 sugarmaple taps, aprox 40 red maple, the sugars flowed a little, and the reds even less. Today we tapped 5 shag bark hickories up the road, and 2 poplars, an experiment, we've heard of people tapping hickories and poplars, but there's almost no information on it that we could find, so we'll check it out first hand. If anyone knows about tapping them let us know, when they flow, does the sap behave like maple or birch? etc... thanks, David

My buckets from the first warm up aren't running that great. Maybe they're healing up?

they aren't running great all over, Swamp.

We have about 20 that we tapped mid-January. Which is silly, I realize. They have been frozen for nearly two months. Yesterday, however, they were running every bit as well as other trees tapped much more recently. Maybe the "healing clock" isn't really ticking when they're frozen.

You should get about 6 weeks out of a tap, although some of those windy days might accelerate drying out the tap hole. -David in Ashby


>>> My buckets from the first warm up aren't running that great. Maybe they're healing up?

great flow today in Ashby, despite the wind, went to 26F last night, warm and sunny today, no buddy smell off the evaporator yet. It's all from the sugar maples, nothing from the reds. Also, the black birch have been running since Sunday. -DavidSB

Similar in Princeton. Ran well Thursday, but reds have stopped. I had my final boil last night 4/11 which I think is a record for late in the season. Turning colder next week but this warm stretch 60-70 degrees kills the season, so buckets come down today.

Dave