Bushcraft Foraging: Tapping Birch Water (tree friendly)

Description

In this video we have a look at a very simple and kind way of tapping a birch tree. Branches have a natural mechanism for hardening over, while trunk drilling can often damaging to the tree, especially if the hole is far too large.

Become a Patron:

https://www.patreon.com/MCQBushcraft

Bushcraft Basics Blog - http://www.mcqbushcraft.co.uk/bushcraft-basics/

Amazon Store:

UK Store - http://astore.amazon.co.uk/mcqbushcraft-21

US Store - http://astore.amazon.com/mcq-20

Merchandise:

T-Shirts - http://mcqbushcraft.spreadshirt.co.uk/

Connect On My Website - http://www.MCQBushcraft.co.uk

Connect On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MCQBushcraft

Connect On Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/mcqbushcraft1

Connect On Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/MCQBushcraft

Tags: woodland,forest,mountains,river,lake,tinder,Survival,Bushcraft,survivor,knife,knives,valley,axe,camping,tent,footwear,hunting,fishing,backpack,clothing,boots,primitive,nature,shelter,shooting,shotgun,rifle,rucksack,flashlight,torch,craft,plants,trees,education,wilderness,family,hobbies,fun,animals,game,Foraging

Video Transcription

hi there guys it's Mike from mcq bushcraft here I'm about on a pretty nice walk today it's a beautiful day to be in The Woodlands and I'm in an open area here this is an area that's been cleared and while I was walking along I spotted this silver birch tree here it's quite a nice large silver birch tree a lot of armoring around the base that's you know a good age but I noticed that they had a lower branch a very healthy lower branch which is something you don't see very often when you're in a forest because a lot of the branches would be at the top holding those leaves getting that sun exposure but in this open area here this lower branch is doing pretty well and it's quite healthy and I did a video recently showing how to tap the birch how to tap the SAP out of silver birch tree the drink or collect the SAP for later use and there are many different varying methods out there but in this video today now we've got this lower branch here I wanted to show you probably the safest way of tapping birch getting the SAP out of the tree and it's probably the kindest way of getting the SAP out of the tree and all it requires is the breaking of a small twig or branch or multiple branches even small ones that are you know it's just a few mil in size and the SAP will fly out just as readily as if you bought a large hole into the trunk of the tree and if you have a look at that you can see that the SAP is is flowing out of these two twigs that I've broken off and it's flowing just as quickly as if I had tapped into the trunk and all I need to do is put my bottle there and tie my bottle to it and I can even snap off even more branches and have lots of them feeding in and get quite a good flow of SAP going into that bottle that would fill up in no time so I thought I'd show you this very simple technique of getting this a fact that the birch tree you can do this with Sycamore as well I've done this with Sycamore a few times and it's really quite a nice way of getting the Southbank because you it's just such a low-profile way of doing it doesn't it doesn't harm the tree there are always risks when you go into the trunk on any tree

and you can minimize those risks by you know doing things carefully making the hole very small cleaning it up and trying to make sure there's no trails down the trunk for insects you can do all manner of things and make it very low-profile but there is always risk involved but trees are pretty Hardy I think they're not giving as much credit as there as there do I've seen some horrendous chunks taken out the sides of birch trees and the trees are fine and lots of other trees around here some serious damage and yet they're they're still alive and kicking probably not as healthy as they once were but you know they're still okay so again Nature has its way of dealing with things but it's always nice to approach things in that low-profile way and try not to impact it too much and if you've got access to lower branches there's no other alternative really this is a fantastic way of getting the SAP out so I thought I'd just share that with you since now is the time of year everybody's out doing it and thanks again for watching guys and hopefully I'll see again another video very soon take care