Rich Rayburn

Christopher Weeks wrote:They start running around the time the maples stop. When it's 30 at night and 50+ during the day. And I think they last about two weeks.

Okay that's interesting because with those temperatures the maples should keep running, that is 30° at night and 50° during the day. It may be that your maples are "budding out", because when they begin to swell their buds they usually stop putting out sap. The term "buddy sap" refers to the brownish colored sap that is produced when the trees are swelling their buds, usually right before they stop running.
It may be that the birch trees put their buds out later and that's why they keep running when your maples have stopped.
I might have to tap a birch tree just to see what happens here.

So Christopher, does the Birch season continue beyond the maple season? I've never tapped birch trees.

It looks like Maple season might be over in East Central Minnesota.
   Weather's been in the 50s 60s and 70s and not cold enough at night.
 So just in case anyone's wondering, here's what my totals look like.
   40 trees tapped.
 288 gallons of sap collected.
      6 gallons of syrup made.
      4.75gallons of sugar made.
That comes out to approximately a 27 to 1 ratio of sap to syrup and sugar.
     Looking at other years the ratio is right in the ballpark although the total yield was somewhat less this year than the last few years.
     It would be interesting to know how you other folks that were tapping ended up if your a season is finished also.

Craig,
From my experience and what I've heard,  the longer the syrup is boiled the darker it becomes due to carmelation of the sugars. Prolonged boiling usually leads to a stronger flavor also.
Therefore if a person keeps adding sap to his pots while he's boiling down, which may take several days before a sufficient batch is acquired then that syrup will usually be darker and have a sweeter stronger flavor due to the boiling time.
A friend of mine built a fancy evaporator where the sap is trickled in one side and travels through a series of baffles and comes out the end side almost as finished syrup, the final finishing is in the house on the stove .. the point being his syrup is always very light color and has a mild flavor apparently due to the rapid rate of boiling down.
Oftentimes late season sap is tinted brown or reddish and that also produces a darker syrup, although that syrup oftentimes has a slightly acidic or very strong flavor. Probably not the nice flavor of your talking about.

The sweet rewards,
Maple syrup, Maple hard candies, Maple sugar.

My trees stopped for a few days, then in 3 days they put out 70 gallons of sap, boiled some today for five pints of syrup.  More syrup coming tomorrow.

On the topic of freezing the sap or removing the ice from the pails, I would have to opinion that it seems to be more effort than it would be worth, and studies have shown that you are in fact throwing away sugar when you throw away the ice. Agricultural experimental stations have also determined that it would be wasteful to throw the ice away.
        I boil down 200 to 300 gallons of sap each season on a kitchen wood range and that keeps me busy enough without having to worry about the ice.
       So far this season I've boiled down 100 gallons of sap, ice and all.  And have put up 28 pints of syrup.
        I may have mentioned before that a good book on the subject is THE MAPLE SUGAR BOOK,  by Helen and Scott nearing. This book covers all aspects of maple sugaring including a good bit of maple sugar history.

Christopher Weeks wrote:Is there any reason not to keep topping the syrup off with more and more sap as long as it keeps flowing, instead of processing batches?

Christopher,  there's no problem if you keeping adding sap to what you're boiling down, it makes no difference, it will all end up the same sugar content when you finally decide to finish it off.
As a matter of fact the longer you boil it, it will get a richer flavor because it more or less caramelizes as it's continually boiling.
Just keep the sap either boiling or at about a refrigerator temperature if you're not boiling it, you don't want to sit out at room temperature.
That way you can process enough sap so that it's worthwhile going through the jarring process with many jars instead of just a few.

Hi M, glad you enjoyed the post!  
And yes hanging the containers does have the advantage of keeping most critters out of them, and prevents the containers from tipping on uneven ground, however whatever works is good, the main point is getting the sweet reward 😊.
Let us know how your season goes.

And Christopher, I tapped 20 trees on Monday, and I'm just south of you in pine county. Several of the trees were running sap before I could get the spile tapped in. Though only about a half of dozen of them ran and only an inch or so in the bottom of a number 10 tin.
The weather's been pretty weird this year, I thought maybe I should have tapped a couple of weeks ago when it was warm but I don't think the trees were running then either. I'm looking out the window and can see that a couple of the trees are running today barely above freezing, and then next week we've got Sub-Zero coming again!  I think your timing is going to be okay,  I think they're going to start running intermittently and they may go into mid April.
If it warms up too fast though the season could be short and we won't get too much.
Keep us posted on how your season goes too.
Oh, QUICK UPDATE: brought in 5 gallons of sap this afternoon, it's on the stove. MAPLE SYRUP SEASON HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED HERE 😄.

Hi Tess,
Some would say that woodworking has  been to many, contemplative, intriguing and relaxing, maybe most of all a creative outlet.
Many people including myself prefer hand tools to power tools for most woodworking tasks,  with hand tools you can feel the wood responding to the tool much more than with power equipment. Plus there is the sound of a plane shaving and a saw cutting that is enjoyable.
Liken to hand tools I'll keep my recommendation simple. A couple of books that can be picked up online (quite reasonably) and really explain the world of hand tool usage and early woodworking techniques and projects.

1. THE COMPLETE BOOK OF WOODWORKING, by Charles h Hayward.
2. EARLY AMERICAN FURNITURE YOU CAN BUILD,
By  Fawcett books.

These have been my go-to woodworking books for many many years, the book by Charles Hayward my grandmother bought me when I was 12 years old.
Really got me hooked!!
Happy woodworking!!!