Feb 03, 2013 - Bee collecting maple sap

[ski]

February 03, 2013.
It has turned into a cloudy day with temps about 47-48 degrees but the bees found running sap on this maple tree. There were maybe 20-30 bees, here is a pic of one.

[Wally]

Wayne used to cut his maples about now to let them bleed for the bees. Even tapped a few of them and collected the sap and fed in boardman feeders.

[mike91553]

Have any of you tapped maples and cooked down the sap for syrup?

[ski]

I have thought about it but I only have the one maple tree and it is not a sugar maple. From watching specials on TV snd a trip to New England I think it was something like a 40:1 ratio where 40 gallons of sap boiled down to 1 gallon of syrup. But never having done it, is that true?

[mike91553]

I decided to tap two maples yesterday and in 24 hrs I had about 3 gals of maple water. Not sure if I will try to cook any down or not. It would be very time consuming to do a small batch. From what I saw it takes from 35 to 50 gallons to make 1 gal of syrup.

[mike91553]

I tapped 2 box elder trees (a maple species) and got about a gallon. Cooked it down tonight in the kitchen and it made just over 2 ounces of beautiful amber colored maple syrup. Very sweet and tasty. You need to tap that tree Ski and try some just for the fun of it.