BYC Café

[N F C]

Got my coffee!

It's a little chilly this morning, I've got the hockey game on since I fell asleep last night before it even started

Getting some cinder blocks delivered today to build an evaporator for maple syrup.

I hope everyone has a lovely Thursday!

When will you start tapping Tree? (Or maybe you already have?)

 

[Mtn Margie]

Morning! Much coffee needed as it is still cold here, 6F.
That sounds interesting, Tree. How big will it need to be?
Hope the baby bunny is okay this AM!

 

[Treerooted]

When will you start tapping Tree? (Or maybe you already have?)

Can tap anyday when it's above freezing (0 C), and we had a couple really warm days. But I didn't have all the stuff ready to go.
Last year we tapped Feb 19 because we had a similar warm spell, but then it got pretty cold and caused us some problems. Hopeing a little homemade evaporator will help speed up boiling off.
Ha, so all that to say that we're going to tap on Saturday. But we've missed a few good collection days for sure.

 

[N F C]

Morning! Much coffee needed as it is still cold here, 6F.
That sounds interesting, Tree. How big will it need to be?
Hope the baby bunny is okay this AM!

So you have a tropical heat wave going on Margie? We're all the way up to -2*. And more snow predicted for Friday.

 

[N F C]

Can tap anyday when it's above freezing (0 C), and we had a couple really warm days. But I didn't have all the stuff ready to go.
Last year we tapped Feb 19 because we had a similar warm spell, but then it got pretty cold and caused us some problems. Hopeing a little homemade evaporator will help speed up boiling off.
Ha, so all that to say that we're going to tap on Saturday. But we've missed a few good collection days for sure.

Keep us posted on how it goes for you this year. I've only read about tapping before, never experienced it. The process always seemed interesting to me.

 

[Treerooted]

I love it! It's the first thing to look forward to at the end of winter

The evaporator will accommodate 2-3 steaming pans
Looking to make something like this

 

[Mtn Margie]

Our next day above freezing is Monday. Today is Middle school wrestling and then a big tournament for this weekend is on tap.

 

[ronott1]

Got my coffee!

It's a little chilly this morning, I've got the hockey game on since I fell asleep last night before it even started

Getting some cinder blocks delivered today to build an evaporator for maple syrup.

I hope everyone has a lovely Thursday!

That sounds fun!

 

[Bunnylady]

Mornin', y'all!

@Treerooted - eons ago, when I was a kid, we lived for a few years in a community right where Lake Ontario turns into the St. Lawrence River. One year, my class took a field trip to a sugar bush, and all these years later, my mind conjures up the wood fires, the clouds of steam . . . . Neat stuff!

see if Mom kicked it out ? dogs and cats will push out the weak or not well

Rabbits don't generally do this. Probably because their ancestors gave birth at the bottom end of a tunnel, most rabbits seem to lack the instincts to deliberately move the babies around. Momma hops into the box, and the babies crawl to her to nurse. When she leaves, the babies crawl together under the nest material. Sometimes one crawls the wrong way, and winds up in a corner, away from the others. With new litters, I check boxes a couple of times a day for those sorts of stragglers; a baby that winds up there more than once seems to lack the proper instincts to find the others, and probably won't survive. A kit outside of the box may have hung on and gotten pulled out when Mom left, or crawled out on its own, but the mother almost always lacks the instinct to pick it up and put it back where it belongs.

Baby rabbits getting chilled is so common, we even have the term "Lazarus babies" for the ones that were so cold, they seem to come back from the dead.

 

[The Farmers' Daughter]

Good morning