The maple sap has been running great! Today it was time to finish off the first batch of syrup. Only problem was my candy thermometer wasn't working! I tried it even though it thought room temp was 100 or so. No good, before the sap was even close to ready the thermometer thought I was well past syrup and on to hard candy. The red liquid in the thermometer looked to have a break of some sort in it. It will need to be replaced but that didn't help me with finishing this day's syrup. I had to do it by instinct which meant I had to stay with the boiling sweet sap for much longer than I normally would, testing it every so often. Finally it was time to filter and pour, the resulting maple syrup was darker than my first batch of last year. It has a good consistency and taste just would have liked to see it a little lighter.
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| The rapidly boiling maple sap. |
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| Getting filters and clean jars ready. |
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| Eek that gap in the red must mean a problem for this candy thermometer. It's no longer accurate. |
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| Somebody (Comet) is hoping for sweet drips from the syrup pouring! |
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| Just about exactly a gallon in this first batch. |
I'm getting behind in my sap boiling, there are at least 20 gallons still waiting for me and more coming out of the trees!
The day wasn't all about maple, we had broody silkie troubles. The nests they have decided on just aren't working. The nest boxes are constantly disturbed and two eggs were even broken. I took the remaining eggs to try candling since it is day 5 and I didn't see a thing suggesting development. After very careful candling I cracked a couple and as expected after candling they were just eggs no baby chicks starting. Either the eggs were not fertile at all or they were disturbed too much to ever get going. I tried explaining to the broody silkies that it's just too early still winter not much happening in the chicken yard. I gave in, let them have a try but it's Just. Too. Early! I tried to distract the broody girls and shut them in a pen with some good treats but a few hours later when I let them back into the yard they ran right back into the hen house and started their broody behavior again.
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| Trying to distract broody silkies is hard work. |
Apparently another silkie ROOSTER is feeling broody as well, those silkies!
And just a few random photos from today in the farm yard.
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| KitKat the Farm Cat |
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| A duck conference. |
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| All 10 ducks |
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| I was here first, get off of me! |
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