Pulled my pails Saturday., and poured out quite a bit of sap.The large trees crowded in the hardwoods were below 1.5% sugar
and the small ones were at 1% or less.
Those trees will still run but for all intents and purposes it's just water. I kept the buckets on the very biggest trees that have lots
of space, large crowns, and no competition they are still at 2% or 2.5% sugar.
A sap hydrometer will save you a lot of firewood and long hours boiling for small amount of very dark syrup.