Just for fun a week ago my daughters "tapped" our large Sugar Maple tree in the front yard and attached a small empty plastic water bottle below their "tap". Low and behold, hours later it was filled with sap. They ran to tell Dad, who caught their excitement and by that evening the tree had two official taps with 5 gallon buckets below and we had a book titled, "Maple Sugaring at Home." Today is one week later and my husband and the girls started boiling approximately 15 gallons of sap this morning on an outdoor fire. The maple syrup we will obtain from that 15 gallons and the entire day spent boiling it will most likely provide enough for one Saturday morning pancake breakfast. I'm sure every drop will be savored!
This tree they tapped is about forty feet from my hives. In between checking on the sap and keeping the fire going, my husband and I were putting together ten hive bodies for spring splits. When I had finished pounding in the last nails, I walked out of the garage into the sunshine and noticed some action around the Maple tree. I walked over to the tree and there on it's trunk crawled 10-15 honeybees. It appears they like the sap too! It is only 45 degrees F. today and close to 20 mph winds, but these girls are out there doing their thing!
 |
| The tap with the sap dripping down onto trunk of the tree. |
 |
| Getting a drink. |
 |
| Honey bee hunting from sap on the trunk. |
 |
| Honey bees on Maple tree trunk that has sap dripping down onto it. |
 |
| Honey bees flying in 20mph wind to visit our Maple tree that has sap dripping down the trunk. |
 |
| High hopes for a good Spring and healthy bees to split. Deep hive bodies put together today. Plan to use Mel Disselkoen's method of On The Spot Queen Rearing again this year. All my OTS queen colonies from last year have made it through winter and are doing well. |
No comments:
Post a Comment