newbie questions... (Long)

If this doesnt belong here I apologize, but I thought i would place it here so people closer to my region would see it.

Let me start out by saying this is my third year doing syrup, 2008, 2010, and 2016. To the knowledge of the previous owner of the property whose family has owned it since the 20's, these trees had never been tapped. They are my yard trees, there is 10 total, on 2 acres. I am in S.E. Michigan in Lenawee county.

I am sorta self teaching so i know i may not be doing everything correct. But i want to try and get my processes and equipment right, before looking for more trees to tap. I have uncles in the U.P. that have tapped and so I kinda got going with just some "words of advice" and reading stuff on the internet.

I use snap on lid 4gallon buckets, i drilled 2 holes per lid, and my drop tubes fit very tightly in the holes so as to keep rain water and debris out of my sap. I run 2 tapes per tree, and usually tap on the south side. I try to stay away from old tap holes, so far hasnt been an issue since this is only my third year and the years have been spaced out. But if i tap more regularly i may run in to an issue. I use a regular drill bit, and drill at a slight upward angle, and slightly tap my taps in the trunk and place the tubing on the taps. right now i use a mix of metal "shark fin" type taps and i slip the tubing over them and secure with a zip tie. just this year i tapped two of my trees with the smaller plastic blue taps, and those trees only have 1 tap each. So i have 10 trees tapped, and 18 taps total.

Now to my questions....

In past years it always seemed like I was getting in at the tail end of the run. I do know that in 2010 i tapped march 1 and had 40 gallons in a week or so and then seemed like the sap yellowed and i pulled the taps. So i figured I was at the tail end. in 2008 i remember getting around 40 gallons, enough to make 1 gallon of syrup.

So this year I decided I was going to try and tap early (Im not good at judging when to tap), So i tapped on Feb 17th. By the weekend i have 23 gallons and boiled down my first batch on the 20th and 21st. During that time most of the trees ran ok, some better than others, but my biggest tree ran about 2 gallons of yellow sap and then stopped, the others have fluctuated up and down with the weather, but this tree stopped and has not produced another drop. If i remember right it did this in years past, is the problem in my tapping? or a bad tree? tree seems healthy and strong, runs sap when i initially tap. I had another tree that ran so-so, but always ran clear, the other day it had about 1 gallon of yellow sap in it, i dumped it and thought it would be done too, however it has started running good sap again. Is this normal?

I also have been wondering if my use of a regular bit is somehow leaving shavings in the hole and plugging the taps restricting flow? But a few of my good trees get tapped the same way and they continue to run good with the weather.

I'm sure I have lots more questions, and I have been reading a lot. But some of this i would like an actual opinion on, not just what I read in a book or online. Like I said i am hoping to get my process and equipment all in good standing before attempting to tap more trees. I am thinking at the very least i need a tapping bit, and to get all my taps the same.

Has it rained at all during this process? Usually when you get yellow sap it's really only some rain water getting into your bucket. I have a lot of taps run through 5 gallon bucket lids like you describe and some rain water still works it's way in on bad days.

It did rain once, however all the trees that ran during that time had clear sap in them except the one, and I don't think that bucket was leaking, could have been but if it was it was the only one, because the big tree that ran yellow from almost the start and that has no longer dripped a drop, had same bucket setup with water standing on top of lid, and not a drop inside

If its the same tree all the time it may have a punky core? Possible Not sure. You could just exclude it or keep tapping and only take the sap when its clear dump it when its not. Also taste it. That will help you identify if its water or sap.

Well I had a good run last night and this morning, and still not a drop, nothing, not even yellow sap in over a week, should I just pull these taps?

I, too, wonder whether my tapping technique costs me in sap production. I use a regular (cleaned) drill bit, slight upward angle, drill in, leave it on forward, but take my time pulling it back out, trying to pull out more wood shavings.

What kind of maples are you tapplng? The inconsistent drippers sound like reds to me.

reds indeed

Reds are known for their inconsistency on buckets. That's why those who tap a lot of them usually have them on vacuum to boost production. When I tapped reds to buckets I found there was a lot of variability between trees. There were reliable trees and others that would hardly drip at all and this was consistent over a few years. After a few years you may learn which ones you can count on. Tap the dependable ones and skip the stingy ones or go to vacuum if you have enough to make it worth your while.

I'm not exactly sure what type of maples they are, I aim to figure that out but I'm not good at figuring that out, any way to tell before trees bud out and get leaves?

I ended up and pulled the taps on the large tree since it hasn't dripped a drop in over a week and the only sap from it this year was yellow. I will continue to watch the tap holes just to see if they start for some reason, but I doubt it, I had a great run from yesterday and through today and that tree is still dry as a bone.

Finished off my second batch of the season tonight, got a gallon of syrup from 44 gallons of sap