Maple syrup farmers face 3rd straight early season

Fluctuating temperatures, including some unseasonably mild weather,has some maple syrup producersstarting their season early for the third year in a rowin New Brunswick.

Heather Fraser runs the Moncton Maple Sugar Camp, and while it's only late February, she said the sap isrunningand she's already started tapping trees.

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"It's the earliest that we've ever been tapped in. It's just the erratic change. From one minute it's minus 10 and then the nextit's plus 10," she told Shift New Brunswick.

"So that big shift has got the trees just a little confused in what to be doing right now."

This would be the third straight early season for maple syrup farmers in the provinceand another early season for those in Nova Scotia.

One maple syrup farmerin Nova Scotiasaidhe's tapped roughly 17,000 trees so far, producing about 375 litres of maple sap.

A Prince Edward Island maple syrup farmer said it was still a bit too early to tell whether they'll see an early season.

As a result of the weather, Fraser is starting to make use of some of theroughly 2,000 taps the sugar camp has.

"Last spring was not the best and it's just like any type of farm project, you rely on Mother Nature totally," she said.

"We're hopeful that this year will be good, it won't warm up too quickly."