Originally Posted by
berkshires
Yep, plenty of nut trees. Oak, hickory (all bitternut, hardly any shag bark) a lot of beech, birch, red and sugar maple, ash, pine, hemlock, etc. No one tree dominates anywhere. It's no benefit to me, as I have no lines. Just an odd mystery.
GO
For us the odd mystery is rabbits. Everywhere I have lived we have had lots of rabbits. I now live in a rural area, with a wide assortment of trees. Lots of squirrels and chipmunks and mice and even the odd groundhog, but I have never seen a rabbit on my property and only rarely in the winter, do I see a rabbit track. We have a lot of predators, hawks, eagles, owls, fox, fishers, coyotes, wolves, mink and even cougars, so they must be being kept well in check.
We have more red squirrels, than black or grey. I have been discouraging the red squirrels. So far I have not witnessed any line damage yet, but maybe that starts to happen once the sap runs.
2022 - 5 pan block arch - 109 taps, 73 on 3/16 lines, 36 on drops into 5 gallon pails.
930 gallons boiled, 109 L (28.8 gals) of delicious syrup made.
DYI Vacuum Filter
2023 - 170 taps, mostly on lines, 1153 gallons boiled, 130 L (34.34 gals) of delicious syrup made, on a 2x4 divided pan and base stack, 8” pipe, on a block arch that boiled at a rate of 13 gallons per hour.
2024 - made 48 L, December to March, primarily over two fire bowls.