Harvesting Balsam for tips in NB

SwampDonkey · November 21, 2005, 06:28:45 PM

Factsheet

Some info about harvesting balsam tips on NB woodlots and Crownlands

BTW, I cought someone this fall tipping without permission. He drove by roadside signs that said private land and yet he told me he thought it was crown land. Then later in the conversation I discovered he never had a crown tipping permit either when he slipped up and asked me how much one cost. :

I didn't get mad, I said if they'll buy those tips let me know and I'll tip too. I never heard from nor seen him since. But, I know where he lives. ;D I've been keeping a close eye on my woodlot all fall and I know every inch of it. ;) I'm scared mostly of fires from a flicked cigarette in the dry weeds under my softwoods. Just like lighting karosene. My woodlot is near the end of a deadend road, so people think no one is around. :

>:(

slowzuki · November 21, 2005, 09:35:09 PM

We used to tip when we were younger... A lot of work for a few bucks if you ask me. We would rack up a trailer load of them and it worked out to maybe 4$ an hour after gas to take them in.

SwampDonkey · November 22, 2005, 07:40:44 AM

Yes, that's the big problem with tipping, is costs. The good tips are hard to get also. I tried it last season and it didn't work out. When I heard the wreath maker company on CBC radio, she said she had 50 wreathmakers. I darn near laughed my ash off. If she had 12 in the two shops I'de be surprised. And she's not going to be getting many tips from crown tippers, it's too far to travel.

slowzuki · November 22, 2005, 08:01:08 AM

I wouldn't be surprised if she had 50, my friend has a small wreath making shop and he goes through about 50 workers in the 3 week season. At any time there is only 5 or6 in the shop though.

Even paying by the piece he said they were slow and would dilly dally. The best workers he had were the 50 year old women who had done some knitting before and had good hand skills and good work ethic. They could make 20$ an hour while the teenagers could barely make 2$/hr!

SwampDonkey · November 22, 2005, 08:21:34 AM

I tried making wreaths and couldn't make 50 a day and I never dilly dallied. On the third day I couldn't even open my hands, tendonitis. The girls that were there would make 60-75 per day by hand and 100 by machine.

It's one thing to say you have 50 people, but another to have them working the whole season. ;)

Deadwood · November 22, 2005, 02:13:34 PM

I've tipped before, but I'm not so sure I would ever do it again. It was good work being out in the woods and whatnot, but the person that "bought" them never seemed to realize how the system works. That is, the person that gets the tips, gives them to him for payment. He got the tips but the payment part was where he went astray.

We have a couple of Wreath Factories here in Maine. Mostly near Cherryfield and Michias. I heard they do well every year hiring the college kids and stuff.

SwampDonkey · November 22, 2005, 03:06:00 PM

Quote from: Deadwood on November 22, 2005, 02:13:34 PM
the person that "bought" them never seemed to realize how the system works. That is, the person that gets the tips, gives them to him for payment. He got the tips but the payment part was where he went astray.

:D :D :D :D Ain't that the truth? :D

Scott · November 22, 2005, 07:47:38 PM

Sunday I went for a walk on the woodlot and when I came back there where 3 people tipping the little firs around my landing. No one asked if I minded they just looked at me and kept going :

. I didn't bother saying anything to them, they weren't doing any harm and they don't make much money at it anyways.

whitepine · November 22, 2005, 11:58:43 PM

Balsam boughs are big business in Minnesota and I do it every year just to get out. My friend is a buyer and fills about 30 semi loads a year. He buys for a business in the Twin cities that has over 1000 employees. This years price was 13 cents a pound and a young man should easily make over $150.00 a day cutting. Did some figuring and If I sell a balsam tree to a logger it is worth about 2 or 3 dollars and there is about 4 or 5 dollars worth of bough on it. I have a 40 that my sons took a couple of thousand dollars worth off every year for over ten years now and it grows back in about 3 years. Balsam is about the cheapest wood up here more a weed than anything else. About 30 miles from me there is a station where they make the wreathes and they pay minimum wage for teenagers and a couple more an hour for adults. Our season ended four days ago.

SwampDonkey · November 23, 2005, 05:45:35 AM

I think your math is off. You'de have to cut over 1000 lbs of tips at that price. Not possible unless you have a trail network all through a fir thicket with ATV and trailor sitting on the trails. They are alot fussier here on the tips to. Plantation fir on Christmas tree farms are useless and abandoned fir trees at tree farms are no good around here. They only buy the shaded bows. I tipped with my father for a 5 hour period and we got 600 lbs of tips, and we were in a sea of fir. We get $0.30/lb here and that's $180 two ways. ;) Only thing about that little adventure is they would only buy half them. The needles were healthy, but the color was off and they weren't shade needles. I discovered over at the Shop-n-Save in Maine that they are not fussy at all on the tips. I seen curled needles, stunted needles, and full sun needles that we can't sell here, the buyers down in NY area reject them. :

Dom · November 23, 2005, 04:44:27 PM

I've never harvested Balsam, but one fellow at work harvested Balsam during his whole 3 week vacation time! He loves it, and says it pays fairly well.

whitepine · November 23, 2005, 09:21:54 PM

SwampDonkey my math is correct we use atv's and pickups and even I can get a pickup full over 800 pounds by noon. They pay an extra 2 cents a pound for specials (flat good colour and under 18" long but to me more money is made in the regulars.