Many beavers travel about through the summer, following the streams and return to their homes in the early fall. Their food consists of saplings and small trees, which they gnaw off about a foot above the ground, drag into the edge of the water, where they are cut up into pieces of different lengths, stored away, under water in front of the house. The beaver spends the entire winter under the ice. When they feel hungry they will go out and get a piece of wood, take it into their house, eat the bark, and take the peeled stick out again. They repair the house and dam each fall and they also make holes in the bank under water, to which they can retreat in case the house is disturbed or when they hear a noise on the ice.
Trappers who are well acquainted with the habits of the beaver can make a fair estimate of the number of inmates of a house. It sometimes happens that a pair of young beavers—or a lone beaver that has escaped from some family which has been trapped—will locate in an old deserted house. The experienced trapper, however, is not likely to be fooled. He goes along the shore and carefully examines the stumps, where the animals have been cutting trees for food. The amount of wood that has been cut will show, usually; but he has still a better way of determining whether the work was done by one or more beavers. He examines the teeth marks on the stumps and, if they are all alike, he decides that there is not a full family, but only two, or perhaps only one. A lone beaver that has escaped from the trapper is difficult to trap.
In cutting timber, the beaver takes the wood in small chips, gnawing all around the tree, until it falls. He knows absolutely nothing about throwing the tree in the direction in which he wishes it to fall, but lets it fall just as it is inclined to go.
When one finds a family of beavers and expects to trap the same ground each season, he should not attempt to catch them all, as by leaving a few to breed, he is sure of getting beavers each season. The Indians were known to trap only the old beavers, which they did by setting the traps a good distance from the house—for the young beavers never ventured far from home.
Many beavers are trapped in the fall just before the ice forms, but their fur is not prime until mid-winter. In the North they remain in good condition until the first of June; in the South they would probably not be good after the middle of April.
The following methods of trapping are for use in open water, in either the fall or spring. The first method is usually considered best:
Find a place where the bank bluffs a little and the water is of good depth. Make a little pocket in the bank, several inches deep, and set the trap in the water directly in front of this pocket, where the pan of the trap will be about two inches under water. Dip a small stick in whatever scent you are using and fasten it to the bank with a stick, about fourteen inches above the water, and as far back in the pocket as possible. Fasten the trap so that the beaver will drown; the sliding pole is best. Be sure to use a dead pole or stake, as if a green pole is used the other beavers may carry it away, trap and all. This is a very good method for spring and fall, or at any time when there is open water. Here is another method for the same kind of place:
Set the trap under water at the foot of a steep bank and fasten a couple of green poplar or cottonwood sticks on the bank directly over the trap, so that the beaver will step into the trap in trying to reach them. Have the fresh cut ends of the sticks showing plainly, and make your set near the house or dam so that the beavers are sure to see it. Fasten the trap so that the captured animal will be sure to drown. No covering is needed on traps when they are set under water.
Look for the beaver’s slides or trails where he drags his food into the water, and if the water is deep enough to drown him, set the trap under about two inches of water, just where he lands on the bank. This set is all right in the fall, when the beaver is laying in his food for the winter, but is not much good in the spring. Some trappers set the trap a foot or more from the shore, where the water is about six inches deep, as by so doing the beaver is caught by the hind foot and is not so likely to escape.
Beavers usually have a slide or trail over the center of the dam, and this makes a very good place to set a trap. Set the trap under water on the upper side of the dam, just where the trail leads over. Be sure to fasten the trap so that the animal will drown, because if it is not drowned, it is almost certain to escape, and even if it does not, the others will be frightened and you will have a hard time getting them.
In the spring, after the ice has gone, it is a good plan to set a few traps along the stream, as the beavers are traveling at this time and you are likely to catch one almost anywhere along the streams. When setting traps in this way, it is best to drench the set with water to remove the human scent. The beaver is seldom afraid of human scent. Beavers may be caught in mid-winter and early spring by setting baited traps under the ice. It is not much use to set traps under the ice in early winter, as the beaver’s food is still in good condition and they will not take bait well. Moreover, you are likely to frighten them and make them harder to trap later on. The following methods are among the best for use under the ice. The one first given, being most used, is probably the most recommended.
Go close to the beaver’s house where the ice is thin, and by cutting small holes in the ice, find a place where the water is about twelve inches deep. Having found such a place, enlarge the hole until it is about sixteen by twenty inches in size, making a pen the same size as the hole, by shoving down dead sticks about four inches apart. If the bottom is very hard, you will have to freeze the sticks to the ice to hold them in place. This may be done by throwing snow in the water and packing it around the sticks and against the edge of the ice. When the pen is completed, cut a piece of green poplar about one and a half or two inches thick and two or three feet long, and fasten it to a stake by one end—the poplar being placed at a right angle to the stake. This green poplar is the bait, and the stake should be driven down in one corner of the pen so that the bait is within two or three inches from the bottom, and close along one side of the pen, extending a foot or more beyond the entrance.
The trap should be staked and set well inside of the pen and quite close to the bait, so that the jaw of the trap will just clear the bait. If the bottom is of thin mud, as is often the case, you will have to make a bed for the trap by sinking a bunch of evergreen boughs inside of the pen. It is also best to fasten the bait near the entrance to prevent the beaver from swinging it around. When the set is completed, cover the hole with evergreen boughs and bank it with snow to keep it from freezing.
It is best to let this set go for about a week before looking at it. The beavers will be frightened and will not approach the set for a few days, but finally one of them will muster up courage to try and pull the bait out of the pen. When he finds it fast, he cuts it off at the entrance of the pen, takes it to the house to eat it; this sharpens his appetite, makes him more courageous, and he finally ventures into the pen for the balance of the bait. In attempting to cut the bait, he places one front foot on the bait and the other one in the trap. When using this set you should use three or four sets at each house. Another good ice method: find the proper depth of water, about fourteen inches, and make a pen of dead sticks arranging them in the form of a half-circle. Now take some green poplar and shove them down firmly into the bottom, about six inches apart, close up to the stakes on the inside of the pen. These bait sticks must be long enough to reach above the ice, so that they will freeze fast at the top. Stake the trap and set it in the center of the enclosure, with the pan about nine inches from the center bait. Throw some snow in the hole, so that it will freeze and hold the bait sticks securely.