Height of tubing

[Newbie18]

Do you think I could run my tubing about 10' high. I could put my taps a little higher. I have a lot of deer in the area and am afraid they will pull lower lines down

[lpakiz]

I doubt that deer would be a very significant problem for you. I have dozens in the woods. Given a bit of time, they will almost always duck under any line or fence higher than a couple feet. Lower than a few feet, they will leap over it.
The problem arises when they are scared, like during hunting season. Then they just barrel thru the woods and can hook a line and pull it. I have never proven that a deer bit a line. Bears are a different story. I understand moose are a much larger problem because of their large antlers.

[maple flats]

All 3 of my bushes are full of deer but it is quite rare to have a line pulled down by deer, and I've only thought 1 line about 8-10 yrs ago was chewed by deer and that was in the off season, on a line I missed when cleaning lines.
If you run your lines that high you won't get as much sap either. In one of my bushes I had 2 lines that went high to get slope enough as the land sloped away from the main. Those 2 lines flowed less than the lower lines. Besides, it would be real difficult to find and fix leaks 10' in the air, and just installing lines that high is real tough. Mains would be a real challenge if not seemingly impossible.

[BreezyHill]

Do you think I could run my tubing about 10' high. I could put my taps a little higher. I have a lot of deer in the area and am afraid they will pull lower lines down

Our main bush is a favored spot for deer as their is a marsh/swamp in the middle and elevated ground around the east and west sides. Easy escape routes North and south. Since 1970's we have far more lines down from limbs than deer issues. This past fall I strung a high Tensile (HT) support line along a trail that goes thru the center of the bush. Three trail connections to the west were left open and the deer vacated the bush til snow came. Even then there was very little deer pressure.

This season they are back.

In the past my issue was deer rubbing on the saddles and loosening them to the point of leakage. Off season in season it did not matter. I use the bolt lock max seal saddles and the issue has subsided for now.

The tremendous amount of time spent with ladders to lay and keep the lines tight above reach will be endless. Then factor in tapping with a ladder...did this last season with lots of snow...I bet my son was at maybe 10 taps an hour. Better where we just strung new lines but still sucked like hell. Then factor in pulling taps with a ladder....SLH!

Use rigid tubing for laterals and pull them tight and the deer will learn where they are and all will be good.

Good Luck!

Ben

[Newbie18]

That's guys. This will be my first year with a bunch of tubing and just wasn't sure. I think I might just use 3/16 and do groups of about 15-20 trees and run them into 45 gallon drums. I can pump them out with a pump on my ATV (with a large storage tank on a trailer)

[BreezyHill]

This past season we could only get around with a scandics SWT Snowmobile to open the trails in the bush. Got a set of tracks for the artic cat TBX off ebay so I can get it to the bush when we have that mch snow but I don't think a trailer would have been able to move unless it was on tracks.

I would suggest a contingency plan in case you get the 5 feet of snow we had in 2015.

What a odd year. no snow...then huge amount of snow. Driest spring since the Civil War to the wettest June on record. Never been this late finishing first cutting and never got a 4 WD tractor stuck in the hay field either.

Last winter we could not get new lines in to a section of the bush due to the snow had drifted in at 10-12' deep in a strip along the hay field. I had decided to not bother tapping that section since it always drifts in some there. But yesterday mowing that field the thought of why let one season stop production on 150 taps. If we cant dig out the lines we just let it melt til we can.

I think that is what we should have done last season...instead of pulling new lines and having taps you had to have a ladder to pull.

Check out a set of snow shoes on ebay. They were a needed tool for us this season and could have been useful in other season for a a week or so.

Remember one thing: Nobody plans to fail...They just fail to plan.

Be a "what if manager" than a "reactive manager" and you will do just fine in being the Captain of your future.

Ben

[PATheron]

I have deer chew on my lines quite a bit. They chew only on the drops and chew it like bubble gum. The whole drop will be chewed on but as bad as it looks it usually doesn't leak. As far as deer taking down the lines we hunt in our sugarbush and deer will come through the woods on a dead run and almost never touch a line. Go under over whatever. My nieces husband did shoot one one time and it took off running and did closeline itself but deer normally don't hurt the lines much here. Theron

[BAP]

Deer don't do much damage, but moose will walk right threw lines and keep on walking destroying large sections.

[ennismaple]

I have deer chew on my lines quite a bit. They chew only on the drops and chew it like bubble gum. The whole drop will be chewed on but as bad as it looks it usually doesn't leak. As far as deer taking down the lines we hunt in our sugarbush and deer will come through the woods on a dead run and almost never touch a line. Go under over whatever. My nieces husband did shoot one one time and it took off running and did closeline itself but deer normally don't hurt the lines much here. Theron

We have the same experience with deer as Theron. They will gnaw on the odd dropline but with as much tubing as we have in the woods but it's a very small percentage. I do recall my brother yelling towards me this past spring to "shoot more f___ing deer" while he was tapping a new section of woods! He had to fix a LOT of chewed lines that afternoon. The deer seem to chew on the tubing more when it's new in a location vs being up for some time.

The tubing and mainlines seem to encourage the deer to take well established trails - the path of least resistance. If you bow hunt you can use this to your advantage!

[Maplewalnut]

Agree with everything said. String your tubing up tight and at the best height for sap collection. The deer will adjust and as Ennis said you will quickly see their preferred routes through your sugarbush. Worse thing that happens is you may need to move a stand a little closer to a new trail! Then again its fun to watch them weave and bob in and out and over tubing like an NFL running back the first time you take a shot at one in a group.