Anyone give up on sap bags?

[thecabinguy]

I’m partially giving up my bags this season after a couple of bad seasons with the bags. I’m going to try my hand at some tubing this season. I have had bag failures caused by multiple factors. I am up to about 170 taps now. Two seasons ago, I was unable to collect before a severe freeze that caused almost all of the completely full bags to expand and split the seam at the bottom. As soon as it started to melt, the sap just dripped out. Ugh, lost several hundred gallons. Last season it was many pin holes that caused massive sap loss. Could be critters, could be bags bumping the trees in the wind. The bags I’ve been getting seem thinner too and more prone to failure. Enough for me. Too much work to have all of that sap loss. Some areas are just impractical for tubing, so I will stick with the bags for those. In the areas that I can, I’m trying some 3/16 lines. It will be a learning curve, but it has to be better. Guess i will find out.

[calvertbrothers]

I’m partially giving up my bags this season after a couple of bad seasons with the bags. I’m going to try my hand at some tubing this season. I have had bag failures caused by multiple factors. I am up to about 170 taps now. Two seasons ago, I was unable to collect before a severe freeze that caused almost all of the completely full bags to expand and split the seam at the bottom. As soon as it started to melt, the sap just dripped out. Ugh, lost several hundred gallons. Last season it was many pin holes that caused massive sap loss. Could be critters, could be bags bumping the trees in the wind. The bags I’ve been getting seem thinner too and more prone to failure. Enough for me. Too much work to have all of that sap loss. Some areas are just impractical for tubing, so I will stick with the bags for those. In the areas that I can, I’m trying some 3/16 lines. It will be a learning curve, but it has to be better. Guess i will find out.

I’ve gave up on bags myself. But this year I am looking at smoky lake maple sap bags. They are supposed to be thicker.

[Pdiamond]

I have used them two years in a row now and had no problems, except for the goat got one when we let him loose last spring. Guess he liked sap too.

[buckeye gold]

I gave up on them 4 years ago. Some because of damage, but mostly went to tubing. Old age drove the change as much as anything, got tired of packing sap.

[thecabinguy]

Just an update. My first attempt at 3/16 tubing has worked out better than I expected. I have been amazed at how much more sap I am getting from my lines vs the bags. Sap has run for several days longer on the lines than the bags. I have one line running still after 3 very warm days with no freeze. The bags were done 3 days ago. I have all red maples and they are very stingy at times. I’m already trying to see where else I can run a lines for next season. I should be down to only a few bags on lone trees that are good producers. I’ve learned a lot for next season. Used sap sak holders for sale. Lol.

[BobU]

We still hang over 400 bags, the squirrels have always been an issue, we tape all the bags with duct tape seems to really cut down on chewed bags.7F9B9CE6-EB3D-4163-A904-58FD05491148.jpg

[tpathoulas]

Over the last coupleof years we have moved to more taps on 3/16 tubing. We are about 3:1 taps on tubing to bags. All of our bags are placed so we can drive our Ranger right to them. Funny thing is this year we did not lose any bags to crytters chewing on them for for a few years. We did nothing to stop the critters, no trapping, hunting or taping bags. Go figure! Next year we plan to run 1-2 more lines and decrease the bags again. We will always have a few bags to show the youngsters the process.

[wobbletop]

We only do 20 bags and didn't have any chews this year. We only put a piece of folded over duct tape on the bottom corners.

[Swingpure]

I gave up on them a long time ago when one season, red squirrels destroyed almost 200 bags in a day. I put out new ones, and they did the same thing.

I haven’t had any sap lines or bags up yet, but around here the trouble maker squirrels are the red squirrels. The black and grey squirrels seem to keep to themselves. Are black and grey squirrels also troublesome when it comes to chewing on bags and lines?

[buckeye gold]

I haven’t had any sap lines or bags up yet, but around here the trouble maker squirrels are the red squirrels. The black and grey squirrels seem to keep to themselves. Are black and grey squirrels also troublesome when it comes to chewing on bags and lines?

YES YES AND YES. They are all vial creatures and instruments of the devil.