I was away all fall for school and had no time to scout and mark runs for beaver before the snow started flying. Now its the beginning of January and we have about 3+ feet of snow with another 35 cms on the way. I know the feed pile is usually the best indicator but I've trapped a beaver under the ice a couple years ago with a bait set conibear with no feed pile to be found. I got out yesterday afternoon and checked 3 big lodges and none of them had feed piles. I've heard that there is usually a vent at the top of the house from them breathing inside the lodge but none of the houses I've checked so far have those either. Runs are tough to find too with the ice 10" thick.

Just want some insight on how you guys can tell if the the beavers are still there once their habitat is frozen with a 1ft of snow over the ice?

Thanks.

I would look for a feed bed.

First I look for a feed bed at the house.If it is fresh feed it will be green when you break the little twigs that poke up thru the ice.If it is old feed it will be dry and dead.Then I check the vent on top.Even when it is cold and freezing weather,and the snow is like powder,the snow around the vent will be sticky and you can make a snowball with it.This is because heat is coming from the vent which means the house is live with beaver inside.When you have established that the house is live,walk around the house tapping the ice with your feed hook or ice spud and listen for a hollow sound when tapping.When beaver go in and out of the entrance they leave air bubbles between the water and the ice,this airspace makes the ice sound different at the run even when the ice is quite thick.If there are a lot of beaver in the house there may be very thin ice at the entrances,or even none at all.

Since you asked
I use an auger for beaver trapping. What I do when I don't know if there are beaver I drill a hole and put a stick of poplar or cottonwood (beaver candy) vertical and when I come back I will know if there are beaver because the stick will be chewed off. I use a piece 2 to 3 inches diameter and long enough to push into the bottom of the pond. You can be 50 feet from where you think they are and the bait will bring them in.

A lot of the beaver I trapped were bank beaver. No vents, sometime overflowed and wind blown thick ice. Up to 5 feet thick. Usually ran 25 to 30 sets at a time.

.

I just knock on top of the house. Usually one of the adults says "who is It?" Serious though a vent is the dead give away.

Common for me to look for live houses after snow gets deep. I just approach with a chisel and shovel testing ice thickness then dig down and check for a feed pile and make sure it’s green like Boco said. I don’t rely on a vent as dead houses can have one too.

A dead house will have a vent but there will be no heat.
Sure sign of a live house is a chimney,especially with smoke(steam)coming out

Where I’m at pretty much every house that is still intact will have melting or hoarfrost around the vent from the air exchange even if no beavers. Not like a big active house though. Kinda neat when you see one steaming on a bitter cold day.

Thanks for the input. The latest one I found had powder snow all over the lodge but at the very top there was shiny ice. Would this be from the snow melting from hot air off the beavers and then freezing because of extreme cold temperatures? There is a feed pile at this one too with fresh feed. Can't seem to find the run though to place a trap. The feed pile is like 3 ft from the lodge.

If your still not sure,put down a green pole like snap said,and see if it gets chewed off.It depends on where you put the pole however,as there could be beaver there but don't find the pole to cut.

If you use green bark aspen, poplar or birch the beaver will come quite a ways to get some. Stale feed beds that are months old make the beaver willing to go quite a ways. I do not trap entrances and have not had much trouble catching beaver quite a ways from the house, even in the black water ponds. The light from the hole helps bring them in also.

Right on. So you guys mostly do baited 330's under the ice opposed to finding and setting the runs?

I set runs mostly.I like setting the main wide entrance with multiple sets for multiple catches.

I use snares, no 330's

Most guys who do baited snares do it something like this. Like stated above, poplar aspen birch, cotton wood, all green for bait.

I use 4 snares and bait in the center. The toggles (cross pieces that hold snares) are 2X2 bolted in center making a cross. I cover the set with visqueen and snow so the ice doesn't freeze too thick. I let the bait float free from the bottom and wire solid to the toggles. My theory is if the bait moves the chances for snareing the beaver
improves.
I carry short and long snares. Beaver will tend to come up into the hole and chew right under the ice and use short snares, onside the ice hole long snares set just under the bottom of the ice. As i said before our ice is from 2 ft. to 5 ft thick so adapting to conditions, thickness and deep cold makes trapping here in the interior successful.
Thanks Plum Billy fo the illustration!

You see that hole on the right on that hump. Dig one of those on the lodge. If there is fresh mud and sticks on the lodge. It was a live lodge before freeze up.

By the length of that bait pole you have some deep water there Dirt .

Good call!

How many snares you put on the long pole Dirt?