I'm sort of a newbie as well. I've collected it a few years, mostly as a curiosity, but this year we started using more spiles with our trees. I noticed that as well, however it was also dripping into the bucket. Do you notice anything in your buckets, or any sap at all on the end of the spiles? Did you make sure to point the spiles down a little bit at an angle? I think it's normal for it to have some wetness running down the trunk, but as I said we haven't been doing the sap thing for very long. We're also getting lots of sap this year, it can take a day or so for the bucket to fill up also. I've found that any trees we have that are close to a lot of sun and have a lot of branches don't make much sap, but the ones deeper in the woods do way better, especially the ones with larger diameter trunks. I also noticed that when we had a slight spring thaw in early Feb and we left the spiles in the trees, and they started dripping even when I didn't think they would. Hope this helps!

Yes, there is a wee bit of sap at the end of the spiles but not as much as is running down the tree. I put a metal 'scoop' at the bottom of the tree that I fashioned out of a tin container to catch the sap running down the tree. It is directed towards a bucket on the ground and it works well except that it rained today and the rain went into the bucket as well.

All of the spikes are at a downward angle but most of the trees that I put holes into are leaking sap around the spiles. I made sure that the holes are cleaned out so there aren't any plugs but obviously I am doing something wrong.

How deep did you drill? Hubby put them in about 4 inches deep, not sure how deep you sunk yours?

Wait, I think it was more like 3 inches, sorry!