We started tapping our maple trees today.

We can usually put out about 700 taps per day.  Today we averaged about 250.  It was very slow going and I sure am glad that we have snowshoes to use.  Even with the snowshoes I was sinking to at least my knees.  In the beginning we were averaging about 50 taps per hour and toward the end of the day our average dropped.  At this rate it will probably take another 30 hours to get all our trees tapped.

For those not familiar with the process, all of our taps are on 5/16″ tubing.  One 5/16″ line should have only 5-10 taps on it, that line then connects to a inch line that brings the sap directly to our Sap House.  You can only imagine how many lines we have in the woods with 1400 taps.  We guess that we have approximately 4-5 miles of one inch line in the woods and probably 6-7 miles of 5/16″ line.  That being said we still have no problem getting through the woods to work since we use quick disconnects to keep our roads open when we aren’t sugaring.

The tapping process consists of drilling a 19/64 hole about 1-2 inches deep (if the bark is really think it would be 2 inches) otherwise it’s about an inch.  Once the hole is drilled you then gently tap in a spout (we use check valve spouts – I will blog more about this spout at another time).  Once the spout is tapped in you connect the stubby to the spout.  (The stubby is connected to the 5/16″ line and stays connected to the line year round).   I will try to get some pictures to post to make visualizing the process easier.

Until the next time~Lori