Do you know how people make the sweet, thick maple syrup that you put on your pancakes? They tap maple trees in late winter and gather sap from them! It does not stop there, they gather the sap and boil it down so that the water evaporates and eventualy, it becomes maple syrup. It does not hurt the tree, don’t worry, and the tree still has plenty of sap to make buds. You may be wondering: why in the winter? Well, I will explain it as simply as I can. it is because the trees, in the summer- fall store sugar and water that they gather and put it into the roots. Then they go into dormancy in the winter. When it starts to warm up, the tree starts coming out of dormancy and getting the sap up into the branches to make buds. Also, you cannot go too long because once the tree starts to bud, the sap get a floral flavor. It sounds like you would want it, but it puts a bad tast into the syrup.