I read a uvm study that said no significant difference in sap collection with tapping early compared to later as the big run days are in march april. They didn't seem to think holes really dried up until march april anyways due to rising temps and some sort bacteria building up. If I get the shack up and evap in Saturday I am going to put out maybe 50 taps. That's 50 less taps I have to put out in 3 weeks.