So how much can you leave on the pelt to increase weight?

You????
Probably none, you are tooooooo OCD..,,

Don’t forget to hide them lead weights well haha!

Looks good! She’s ready to go. $$$

looks good to me

I’d remove the castor but other than that, looks good. Maybe a couple more nails and trim the lips so they don’t sour. Leaving the front hoof in the hide like you did stage left helps save on time…no need to close the hole that way! I’d keep it in a sunny location to help it dry faster.

This getting paid by weight nonsense is ticking me off.

I should dip all my finished pelts in sand

Red River gumbo is much heavier than sand

BTW, in all seriousness my blanket beaver are weighing in at 2 lbs. A tad less than what Don Wolf says they should be at. But i do trim off ears nose and lips, shave down shoulders a bit, and don't leave any grease on the leather.

that 2 pounds is about right, they had to weigh the watermelon tubs before shipping

I trim mine the same way, and will never sell them by the pound.

You’d be crazy to sell by the pound in today’s market. Selling by weight is for the hatter market.

The beaver we have in SD have almost always sold by the lb. We don't have the right color. I leave the ears, lips and nose all on. I do flesh them clean. I have made more money the last 2 years because of the felt market then the previous 10 years before that.

At $20/lb those blankets are still at $40....not too bad really.

Not so good either if we figure increased production costs.

Won't deny that Steven, but a couple of years ago I was averaging about $15 ....so averages over double that have their appeal.

You know what they say. Crap runs down hill so beings your are in Oregon and south of Portland I would expect the beaver to weight more.

You need to take into consideration what you’re selling…there is a premium for shearable goods. That’s where they make a killing buying by the pound. If they want to pay by the pound, give them the damaged stuff…

Good point BvrRetreiver. Probably more of a thing in your neck of the woods. Southern goods and late Oregon beaver it probably wouldn't apply.

Never heard of this by the pound buying. If they're paying $20 by the lb that's not very different than what the market has been giving at recent sales.
BP, how hard where you laughing by yourself when you nailed that to the board?

Please explain why.

Your Beaver must be thin hided. November caught blankets easily weigh at least 3lbs

I don’t get this pay by the pound thing either. Under fur & hair is friggin light.

It's selling them by the pound stretched and dried hide included.

Mark Boardman from over your way, used to buy put up,
stretched, & dried beaver pelts by weight for a while.

Afterwards, he was also the NYS Groenewold route buyer
for awhile but now I'm not sure if he is still buying fur, or not.

I think he was paying around $8.00 or $9.00 a pound at the time.

w

Selling by the pound is the way it is now and it is the best return on beaver pelts. I still take pride in fleshing and tacking them up perfectly and it probably costs me some as you could get away with leaving more flesh on the hide and it will weigh more. I guess I am old school

It is probably a more efficient way of buying for the hatter market, but it seems like it takes all the fun out of it. What about all the hocus-pocus of the grading process, finding various inperfections to drop skins into lower grades, or pulling out the old standby super-extra special hide and pointing out how you could be paid more if they all looked like this one.

I do not trim off the nose and lips, nor do take off the tail tits.....we need the weight...I do thin down the shoulders/Jowls area but probably wouldnt have to....I have been told buy a certain midstate buyer that my pelts seem papery and light. And it's a nice heavy, possibly the most furred out pelt in the state up here on the border...

I agree, sell the damaged buy weight it possible. I dont know at all if there exists a better market for the shearable goods.

Trim nothing off.

There is a shearable market out there les, the average furbuyer is too lazy to chase it.

Too easy to pay 18 a lb for and sell for 22.

Good heavy furred winter beaver tend to have more underfur, yet lighter leather. The under fur is what they make felt out of. The under ice trapper gets the shaft so to speak.

The Walmart mentality at it's finest.

I may have to haul my beaver to Idaho to get their potential out of them.

That's what happens when I get bored skinning beaver all day! LOL The warped sense of humor comes out.

To get a better number I would need to weigh a bunch of blankets but I just weighed one. 65" My supers 70"+ will weigh more I'm sure. It is also true that leather weights are different in the north and south. I'm told that Alaska has parchment type leather.

And finally, since 99% of the market is hatter and the contracts that the felt factories put out are for pounds rather than number of pelts one can easily understand the natural evolution of buyers buying by the lb.

But if I live in an area with shearable beaver I would absolutely send them to FHA and let them get sorted there.

Finish 100 straight run beavers and weigh them, Divide the result by 100 for your average weight.

The buyers know what that number should be for your area and can pay accordingly.

Some areas in this state are all hatters and some areas have a small percentage of shearable. There are several factors that can exclude a pelt from shearing quality. The current market is mostly for felt so buying/selling by the pound removes grading. Flat out of winter pelts do not have much or any underfur. Beaver from this section will not average well in a garment market because too much damage and low percentages of shearable goods. The hatter market gives a much better return on piece of garbage hides for those willing to spend a lot of time trapping beaver.

You will never realize the true value of your good pelts if they are not graded.
They will be tossed in with the poor stuff and bring the same low price.

So they buyer is making $8 on a $40 (2 pound beaver at $20 lb)investment? That certainly isn't getting rich in my opinion when you figure in transportation costs and storage.

Spoken like a true northern fur harvester. You are definitely correct.

Unfortunately us Southerners just hang our heads without much attention to which pile our pelts are tossed into.

While Groeny has five different piles
for beaver pelt grades & sizes,

FHA has only two piles;

One Canadian pile & one USA pile

and then they grade (pay) accordingly

with Canadian pelts realizing a premium
& American pelts getting the shaft !!!

w

Dont tell lies walleyed or God wont let your sore toe heal up.

God already punished walleyed this morning when
the rotten toe got stubbed on something in the dark !!!


Didn't you hear me howling & cursing this morning
at around 5:00 AM ?

w

Iam going to the New Mexico sale this weekend ----sooo should I divide my beaver into two piles one damaged and one for the "perfect" ones?

Thats what I mean, they could be buying a nice big summer beaver with no underfur but a thick hide? Some regions beaver have thicker hides than others too. Then there's guys who'll smartly leave stuff on the hide or make sure there's lots of sand in the fur. Buying by weight seems like a really stupid idea unless you're really under paying the seller.
Like I says....I don't get it.

Show me where I said they were getting rich,

What i said was there is more potential than $18 to $19 dollars a lb for winter beaver.



Minnesota February beaver tend to run light leathered as well. On average our fall hides will weigh as much or more than our good winter beaver of equal size. Those winter beaver will have exponentially more underfur which is what the hatter trade uses. The long hairs and hide are discarded.

So someone with a thick leathered beaver that weighs the same as a heavy furred beaver of equal size will get paid the same. See the dilemma? It's the Walmart mentality.


Walleyed the beaver I have in my possession will grade with the best of the best.

It's about time of year.

Also 160 user, when the buyers are purchasing in the round is where the real money is at.

I see your dilemma now.

How much do you think you will get for your winter caught beaver? And do you have a market for them?

Those heavies? Find somebody like WyWolfer who needs shearables for his business, or a craft buyer that is willing to open his wallet a little wider than what he was once used to. Or the simplest is send them to FHA. We're hearing that the heavies may finally be getting up to more reasonable levels. Of course most of what I hear comes from Boco....LOL.

Steven,

I never asked you about your beaver.

w

The beaver market is driven by the hatter demand. Most beaver will go there even if making the low end cut on shearable grade. Beaver from this section do not sell at exceptional high levels at FHA, etc despite what some think. Also, I don’t agree with selling fur that looks like chit just to try and gain weight that is not beneficial to the buyer. Find a different market for your beaver if you think yours is so much better quality and demands a premium apart from the fur market, such as auction etc.

Like the dumb chinese buying sec 3 otter for higher prices than the good ones a decade ago
The dumb hatters buying beaver with no underfur have learned their lessons also from the last couple years.

What evidence do we have that the "dumb hatter buyers" have learned their lesson? But I agree, if they haven't they must got something wrong in the head.

Interesting question Tom. My answer is: do you know who the buyers will be? If you got craft types it may pay to separate out your better stuff. But on the other hand with my one lone experience so far this year the hatters bought all the beaver that were offered and crafters bids didn't match the market.

Edit: Had to fact check myself and fact is my small stuff did indeed sell to a crafter for $21 each. My big lot of XL and larger sold for $41 avg to one of the big hatter buyers.

Just the word going around.Re Beaver market update from the auction.
Expecting good beaver to advance and poor beaver to remain the same or drop.
I didnt ask what the evidence was but probably inquiries from the new buyers what the grades mean re- underfur.
Dont worry BP bites shouldnt matter as long as they got some felt.

That is why I shipped with Fur Harvesters

Or the hatter market is stronger than anyone on Tman realizes.

I cant imagine the hatter market being so strong, perhaps I am unaware of it's capacity....

I wonder if any buyers pay by the pound for carcass beaver?$.50 a pound sounds good-wet fur-minimal sand or mud.

I just sold 9 green for $20 average two were blanket , two were medium and five were kits . I was happy , dident have to flesh or stretch

trapper les,
The hatter market is what has got us to where we are today, not the shearable market.

And it's why this beaver marketing thread continues.

I read about Hudson Bay paid with GOLD dust pound for pound Of course Gold was much less then Still an incredible value

Selling by the lbs. green and frozen can really open up some opportunity for some that like putting up beaver and they can flesh and stretch like the market they are selling into. That would be more true if as some say there is more interest in better grades.

Bryce

BINGO

At the end of the day there are bean counters in every business and those guys will be paying attention to how many ounces of felt per lb of beaver pelt is yielded. I'm sure they already have figured out that not all beaver pelt sections are equal.

You guys don't think the fur buyers/bean counters know that there are differences in beaver sections across the continent. Surely, the hatter beaver buyers know the differences in heft of the underfur from northern vs southern and winter vs summer. All those players/buyers are not new players/buyers.

The fur buying game is an old game. There may be a price adjustment, but it will likely be reflected in ALL beaver sections...not just hatter goods.

Heard on the radio this morning that Beyonce came out with a country song and her fans are making the sales of cowboy hats, boots, and western wear boom. Might lead to another big boom in the beaver hatter market.

Heading to Estanica tomorrow with my 29 beaver will be in one lot so it should be interesting to see if there is any interest or I bring them home 21 are over 60 inches, a few are the religious ones!

All else equal,a beaver with 1 inch of underfur will produce 4 times the felt of a beaver with 1/4 inch underfur.
Not only that according to the felt makers the longer the fibre the stronger the felt.

In Oregon our section of beaver averages out to 1/2 " of underfur.

Sounds plausible. I wonder who's been losing $$.

Well that is the answer, Boco has figured it out that 4 quarter inches = an one inch.

Let us know how it works out. Hope you do good! I'm going to the Prineville OTC sale on Saturday and am considering putting most of my beaver in one lot too. I have 152 beaver so it will represent a big portion of the beaver on that sale.

Oh, I agree. That said, my time is worth something too. By the time I skin, flesh and stretch a hide, wipe it down daily as it dries, remove from board and recomb is it safe to say I have 2 hours of labor into it? Minimum wage is around $15 hour. For ME selling green right now works. It also helps me support a local buyer to give me the option green and sell other species.

Not me thats for sure,I sold 3 tanned beaver today for $402.50
Guaranteed they wont wind up on a cowboy head.

If you need to wipe down beaver pelts daily might I suggest that they should have been fleshed a little tighter?

I leave that wipe down fat on there for weight, lol...but I agree with you.

Wipe them down daily?

Waste.of time

Or, perhaps it provides the illusion of being productive while puttering about in the fur shed.

How many days are they on the board?

I figure I cann do a beaver start to finish in 20 25 minutes. The money is made in the shed. But then again I don't have a life

In that 15 seconds a guy coulda started the opening cut on another beaver....LOL

The put up happens around here when the weather is too bad to trap or seasons over lol

On average about 30 minutes for me to process a beaver. I process fur when trapped so no end of season pile to dig out the freezer.

You guys are all likely faster than me. The other day i timed myself on three big blankets and averaged 19 minutes each clean skinned and castor cleaned up and hung. Three an hour to put up on average too. 3/4 of my beaver are blankets so I'm about 45-50 minutes per when i include taking them off the board and combing them.

You guys are fast,it takes me 12 hours just to thaw out a pelt to board.
Its not much work though.

With Boco it depends on how the hockey game is going for how fast he puts up beaver!

I quit timing myself as it is too depressing.
but I assume you have heard the one about the tortoise and the hare?

Not to further depress you....but I saw 20 turtle shells for sale at the January ITA sale. LOL

I wouldn't worry about it, I think most people who post their times on here probably don't count the whole process. The whole process from grabbing a beaver to cleaning up the mess and disposing of carcasses and endless handling of boards. equipment, and beaver parts. Some are certainly faster than others and some processes are certainly more efficient, while some put ups are nicer and some not so nice, but may be sufficient.

That is absolutely true Dirt. But just like the MOUNTAIN MEN of the previous century ...truth is not always our strong point.

That would only interest the hatter buyers. There are other markets that will pay more for nice skins, I'd suggest against that plan. BUT... let us know how well it works!

Being my screen name is turtledale, I understand lol
I do approach putting up fur slow and steady. It's something I really enjoy.

I do not think a trapper with 29 beaver in varying conditions and size should spend the time to search out the best market to make a few extra bucks on the best. Not worth his effort.

I'm a plodder. I have no high gears.

I have at least an hour in each beaver. 15- 20 minutes to skin. 15-30 minutes to flesh ( depending on size ), 15-20 minutes to board, 5-10 minutes to remove. I can do two small beavers in the time it takes to do one over 50#.

I take beaver out of truck/SxS bed...one at a time...and lay em in the skinning trough. Takes about 10 min to rough skin, comb any mud or debris off the skint pelt, lay out on freezer lid and fold, then lay pelt in freezer. Then, I remove the oil sacs and castors, along with tail and drop in freezer, too.

Carcasses tossed in Jet Sled...in bed of truck and dumped on my private property next morning.

Later this month it'll take me about 30 mins to load the frozen pelts and then another 30 mins to drive 25 miles to meet GFW.

How much time is all that?

I just need to get done with a little logging so I can get back to the whole beaver trapping race....lol....money or not, here I come.

I have scraped 40-50 beaver in a day several times. I was finishing one about every 10 minutes. This is not something I’m doing now or have any desire to do now.

No way I could put up beaver now. Hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders can't handle it.

What happened to your hands wrists elbows and shoulders.
You aint that old are you I thought you were only in your early 60's?

Had carpal tunnel release surgery on both hands at same time 2.5 years ago. Had put off the surgery for too long doc said. Should've had it done 20 years ago. Fingers drawn up a bit. Have permanent nerve damage. Have no feeling in fingertips. Weak grip.

Fingers, knuckles, wrists, elbows, shoulders, and knees have arthritis that is getting worse.

I can knock them out pretty fast, but I really don't enjoy it. Spending a good part of an evening putting up 3 or 4 is more my style. Add some rock and roll and a cold coke and I'm in my element. My fur room is kinda a sanctuary.

That sucks Swampy,guess just gotta keep going best we can.

Gotta love it to keep at it when it causes pain....

I've timed myself many times doing more than few beaver at a time. I can generally skin 8 an hour and that's skinning them, gutting and cleaned up. 8 an hour is typical to flesh. Maybe a little slower as I have got older, board them in five. It doesn't take but a minute or two to take off the board. The minor stuff like flipping boards, bagging pelts etc I do in the early morning when I have nothing else to do..

It took me a couple weeks to get back in the groove this winter but I still got it

Apparently, I never had it. You sir are a stud.

Lots of practice

There are guys that are faster

This guy is faster than me, can you guess who he is? He's done a beaver or two. I can't even skin a smaller beaver in less than 3 minutes.



The Howell Bros are experts in their field.





I need to totally rebuild a beam to speed up. Don't know if I will though.

Did some more weighing....my blankets averaged 2 1/8lbs and my supers right at 3 lbs.

That's more like it.

I’ve got a 64”, real beauty, on the board now. I’ll weight it when I pull it off soon.

Pulled it off and it weighed 1.4lbs. So I’d get about 30 US bucks for this 64” prime?

that's a nice looking beaver shakey-better than $30

I weighed some 60 inch plus---little over 2 p0unds---sold them yesterday for 35--28 in the lot---21 over 60 and 21 0f them were last springs beaver--stale and rubbed--bit. I trap at 7000 feet so I think they are a heavy grade, I guess it is a hatter market!

20 supers, 65 blankets and 41 XL's averaged out to 2.07 lbs each. That lot sold for $37.67 avg 126 beaver, yesterday OTC sale. Two of the buyers were weighing beaver but the high bidder was not one of the weighers.

(That was based on weighing a representative sample of 5 of each size).

Tom, were you happy with the price you got?

You must have that parchment thin leather Shakey. Nice looking beaver.

That is $18 a lb. What pretty much every buyer around here is paying.

The catch 22.

Thanks for the update Carl.