I broke my home made chipping bar going over a steep dam on the weekend. Picked up these today. Woods brand.

How do you chip a hole open? Start with a hole in the middle and work your way around or chip the circumference down a few inches and work your way down in layers?
On the weekend I scribed cubes with the chainsaw then finished chipping out but one was frozen to the ice and its tail was into the lodge, dicey with the saw. The videos I’ve seen are guys who “ice” trap have barely any ice to go through….lol.

We work it down in layers.


I have good help too

How long between checks?
It helps to cover the hole with something then throw snow on top if you are going 5 days or so between checks during a cold snap.
Setting the main den entrance with multiple traps on superstands and targeting mature colonys will eliminate most of your problems.
Chip a small hole between the stand arms then use your chisel to feel which way the beaver entered the trap so you wont damage the pelt when opening the hole.

I make a narrow rectangular hole for hanging snares for beaver. Trace the hole with your pick first around then chop it deeper, and then take off middle layers going around the sides again with every layer you go down.

In cold weather beaver sets should be checked every two days, so they don't freeze. In warm weather, I pull snares because they will come out of the ice if it dont freeze or use a tangle pole/bait pole.

4 holes with power auger. Chip out and clean up the hole with a Jiffy step cutter ice chisel. 4 snares with bait in center Cover with visqueen and a pile of snow, a must here. 2 sets outside of feed pile. Farming.

I have a Jiffy 10 " power auger getting a nice patina in the chicken coop.

One year me and a trapping partner got a little carried away with it and set up about thirty houses in one day. (we have a huge beaver population here). I drill three holes and hang two or, three snares. Two sets per house on each side of the grub pile just like Snap.

It stormed right after we set them and we couldn't get back out for about a week and it got really cold. That was the hardest kind of work checking all those sets with a spud. I learned after that, never set more than six or eight houses.

I get out there once a week and I don’t have the help like victor#0 has. Buddy’s kid that tags along sometimes is of the 20yr old 6’4”, 350lb that anchors the snowmobile down or blows the back shocks out of a quad type…..lol. He stands on the skids now or lays in a sleigh if he doesn’t have a machine.
Last year we brought cardboard to cover the hole but for some reason we haven’t brought any this year. So far, the lodges we’ve hit aren’t very big, but we gotta just start hitting one at a time. We come up with our plan for the day which gets completely destroyed when there’s a bunch of new wolf tracks or wolves in snares, next thing you know it’s dark and still more sets to check.
This is the first time we tried the “swinging Susie” sets which are pretty close to the surface. I like the idea of feeling around to figure out which way the beaver is with the chipper. Could then saw a hole and chip towards the stand or set.

How thick of ice is everyone chipping through? I've been using a felling axe until the ice is about 12" then swapping to an auger and doing 3-4 overlapping holes until I have a slot big enough for a 330 but I like the idea of drilling the corners and chipping the rest. I just don't know that I'd want to do that when the ice is 20+" thick

I would switch to a chainsaw if it's over 2 feet thick. That way you can keep the corners square and even slope the sides outward a bit

We don't start trapping beaver till March and on the creek the ice is usually around 24", on the ponds and lakes it's over three feet so we stick to trapping beaver on the creek. We use a chainsaw to cut the hole and check the set every other day. Checking it every other day we usually have a few inches to chisel through.

use some telphone wire and wrap the springs and do a conductivity test to see if fired off when you come back to it

That works. Gotta use the plastic covered splices so when it rips apart, one end is covered by the plastic. I had 2 last year the showed a complete circuit but the thing was set off. When it ripped apart, both of the skinned ends of wire ended up touching metal trap/stand. Guy in Alaska rigger a little LED light to a battery and he could check with binoculars, if the light was on it should be still set.
The woods chipping bar worked al right this weekend. Had the chip the hole a bit wider to get the 330 out. Ice about 10” at the edges. Forgot to bring something to cover the holes again. We sure don’t have the ice we did last year at this time!

You can use a big fur bag to cover the hole,Make sure you let the ice skim over before you cover or the fur bag could freeze in.

Balsam boughs and snow, if you have it, works good...never freezes

FWIW, I experimented with covering holes, or not. It was my conclusion that I snared more beaver in an open hole than I did when I covered it.
I suspect the sunlight and a big hole in their ceiling got their attention. Also, they hoped to come out and get fresh grub.

That said, I cover my net holes with snow and saves me alot of chopping every other day.

The light would probably draw interest from all kinds of stuff too. I wont have to worry about much chipping this weekend. Weather's terrible.

I don't cover my beaver snare set holes either, IMO the light is an attractant and it's also not uncommon to catch otters in these sets too.

Agree with the light and open holes.......until it turns 20 below or worse!

Thats why I check beaver snares every two days, Its not too thick then.

We check ours every two days as well and at -20 or so we have about 2" of ice to chisel through. We only run three snare sets at a time and after we catch two adults we move the set. I would say on average we catch two adults by the second check and it's not uncommon to catch two in one check. March/ April is a nice time to be out trapping...............................

The weather is terrible. Going out this evening and checking in the morning. Im not sure how much snow will be left. Might have some flowing water a lot sooner than last year.