Canyon, it was a good season. We tapped our trees back on the 8th of January, had our first boil a few days after that. Without venturing down a slippery slope, the truth is our winters are changing here.. it's getting warmer, sooner, generally speaking. Accordingly, we have adopted the strategy of tapping early and running a longer season. Having tubing and check valve spiles (taps) helps ensure that we keep our tap holes as sanitary as possible, leading to them staying open longer than what is possible when they are exposed to the air, such as what happens with bucket collection systems. We got almost 8 weeks this season, and we're thrilled with that. Its a crap shoot.... tap too early and miss the big Spring runs, or wait for the big runs and lose it all due to an early Spring.... that's farming for you.
I don't know enough to say if a heating element in the sap would work or not. Certain it would get hot and boil, but would be concerned that sugar would coalesce on the element and burn?
