Under ice beavers

[antlercarver]

Catching a beaver is easy, catching the right ones takes a bit more thought. Trapping or snareing near the house can catch the big female who will have 4-6 kits come spring or catch last years kits who have minimal value. The big male and 2 year olds if there is any,patrol along the dam checking for leaks each day. As there is very little new water coming in any leaks must be fixed.. Snareing or a conibear along the dam will not catch the female or kits. At the end of the dam there is almost always a bank run where the beaver patroling the dam will have a rest or snack. Some times this run goes up and over around the dam to the low side. Mink, otter use this run, beaver will also use it if there is enough water on the low side. I have seen where the water drained away and a foot of ice was held up by the trees in the pond but there was no water, there was a space of 4 ft. between the ice and the mud where the beavers were walking around , couldn`t reach the feed bed which was frozen into the top ice.

[Tfng]

Interesting post Antlercarver. I had wanted to try conibears around the dam last year but could not find thin enough ice around the dam that I could cut with my saw.

There is less ice this year so it may be a possibility. Would you just set a few snare poles near the dam?

How does removing the male from the colony affect it's long term viability? While I don't have a registered line I do have access to quite a few miles of creek with solid permissions. There are many beaver in the area.

My plan was to take a few beaver and then leave that house alone for a couple years. I don't want to clean colonies out because I'd like the dams to be maintained. I can't however control people shooting them from the road.

[Camdec]

In northern Alberta at least one of the counties has a bounty on beaver. In my experience, no matter how many are hunted/trapped they keep coming back. History has proven they are one of the great renewable resources out there!

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by antlercarver

Catching a beaver is easy, catching the right ones takes a bit more thought. Trapping or snareing near the house can catch the big female who will have 4-6 kits come spring or catch last years kits who have minimal value. The big male and 2 year olds if there is any,patrol along the dam checking for leaks each day. As there is very little new water coming in any leaks must be fixed.. Snareing or a conibear along the dam will not catch the female or kits. At the end of the dam there is almost always a bank run where the beaver patroling the dam will have a rest or snack. Some times this run goes up and over around the dam to the low side. Mink, otter use this run, beaver will also use it if there is enough water on the low side. I have seen where the water drained away and a foot of ice was held up by the trees in the pond but there was no water, there was a space of 4 ft. between the ice and the mud where the beavers were walking around , couldn`t reach the feed bed which was frozen into the top ice.

True.

Did you know that at one time, back in the late 1950s and early 1960s it was illegal to trap close to the house, and there was a quota and one had to tag each beaver.

I still have dads papers from when he had a quota and tags for beaver.

He liked those end of the dam sets, they always caught the big beaver. But in some places, it is best to take as many as one can get. Small or large.
They do have a high potential for overpopulating an area.

[WomenHuntAB]

Searching for beaver carcasses for bear season!
If any trappers near Calgary or Rocky Mountain house have available please contact me!