I heard Stetson pays $13 for frost scraped beaver.

Beav,get with the program,we are talking avg here,fur as well as castor,the castor I sold last fall to a buyer here in Ont.netted me $1200 cdn.I had 120 castors,barkstones right down to shells.Do the math,beav that's $10 avg per.

That's $8 in real money.

Dirt,I think I already told you my avg is always quite a bit higher than the auction avg,due in part no doubt to the handling of some of the junk that comes in to the auctions.

You tell me a lot of things. I'm sure you do average better than $12. But your average is still going to be bad, because the international fur market for beaver is worse than the coon market.

I like coon fur and would trap some if there were any here,alas,I am stuck with beaver and marten so have to make do.

I expect to average $10 on castor this year. Average about 5-6 beaver to the lb on our river beaver.

Same here on spring beaver.
Hard to want to skin them when the castor has more value then the skins lol

Boco all the castor you show in that picture are nice plump castors. I buy castor from all over the U.S and you never see castor that runs that plump as an average. There is always some real nice castor in every lot but what I buy has a lot more seconds than first. I never buy a batch of castor that doesn't have some shells in the batch or I will say I hardly ever buy a batch that is all #1 castor. Sometimes you get a real nice batch with all # 1 castor. In my area we never see many good full castor sacks. I would say that the castor I bought last year averaged closer to 6.50 or 7.00 per beaver. The castor out of my own trapped beaver probably averaged close to 6.00 per beaver. Even some of our 60 pound beaver have very poor flat sacks in the things. Most all northern beaver have sacks that are full because they stay under ice. I should start seeing some nice sacks here this year, because our beaver have already been under ice for close to a month and it will be a few more weeks before we get any open water to catch beaver again.
If I remember right, Beaver peeler had some of the best castor I bought last year. He had a large percentage of # 1 sacks.

Beaver castor is badly handled in many cases, going to sell this stuff today will share my prices when I get back tonight.
Jim

How exactl do they want castor prepped for sale ? I have always used mine for my own use. Dry for few days then freeze, freeze instantly, or dry longer? Thanks

Anyone have any Ohio yotes on this sale?

Don,those are frozen in that pic,they are a straight run of castor from all 120 beavers caught.Shells and seconds included.Like was said,lots of castor mishandled,(just like the pelts).I don't overdry my castor before freezing,because it needs to dry a bit after freezing,before marketing or it will be a sloppy mess.

My average gets helped out a lot by individual beavers having a half to 3/4 lb of castor. I catch quite a few of these on the river in mid winter. The other thing is I focus my beaver trapping on sets that multiple beaver are using to mark territory. Those beaver tend to have bigger castors.

Beav, You are correct for fall beaver, but changing light conditions that trigger melatonin production (a hormone secreted by the pineal gland) in the skin and start the priming process also trigger a beaver to begin producing castoreum, and by spring the older beaver castor glands can be quite plump, as I'm sure you've observed. After the vernal equinox (mid-march melatonin production falls off and castors become flat again. Castors are at the heaviest between Christmas and mid March with some exceptions in the far north and south. I wonder if both fur and castor is affected by a cloudy overcast (or sunny) fall? Much like a mink or fox rancher darkens a shed to make the fur better.

Spring beaver here, my avg over the years has been 10 dried castor to the pound. These beaver are not particularly large and I tend to accumulate them in the freezer for several years before I sell so they tend to be freeze - dried as much as anything else.

What? LOL

I did not know this.

Huh?

My fullest castors are from beaver caught just before breeding season starts. Breeding season has already commenced here in western Oregon.