Where are you located (general idea, not town!)

Feb 1 is WAY early for tapping here in Western NY, although I'll admit that it's probably running now. Problems arise if you tap too early, and get a long cold snap... the holes can dry up. Hubby once saw a year where it came off REAL early... he said they were tapping using miner's lamps to see (no such thing as LED headlamps then!).

They tapped 1800 trees (much of that using snowshoes) and got one run... and then it turned cold.

Five weeks later, it warmed back up, they got one more short run... and it turned hot and stayed hot. The trees budded out shortly afterwards. IIRC, they made something like 10 gallons total!

I'm not going to tap this year... I got almost 7 gallons of good syrup last year, and we've got plenty in the cellar.

Summerthyme