I am getting one and wanted any words from anyone who puts green fur in a freezer till they can get to it. thanks.

if the fur is the least bit moist, make sure it doesn't touch the walls or it could freeze to the walls making removing the pelt difficult.

Don't fill the freezer all at once if the pelts are fresh. Freeze in layers.

Put cardboard or paper between the layers to make removal easier. 20 cubic foot furry ice cubes are no fun.

Make sure the lid closes tight.

Check the freezer often to make sure it is still working.

I roll mine up and place in a plastic bag. This works good if you are only adding a few hides at a time. As wissmiss suggests, cardboard works great but I take it a step further and use cardboard boxes to separate hides.

Listen to Wissmiss, you don't want to try to get a big blob of frozen together beaver hides out of the freezer.

Roll up pelts with dry fur, fur out, in a plastic bag with the air squeezed out.
Write on the bag with a marker-species and date caught\frozen,and any with dmg can be marked too.Place in the freezer,to freeze.If you put a lot in at once,rotate the ones from the inside to the outside after 24 hrs so they all get frozen in a timely manner.

Thanks a ton guys

don't matter if you have 6 or 60,the last 2 won't fit.

What about unskined coons, foxes etc.

Freezing any larger fur bearers on the carcass is problematic. They take up a lot of space and you don't get efficient use of the freezer. You have to be careful that they don't freeze together because then you have a problem getting them out and have a whole lot of skinning to do at once. LOL

I hate freezing large animals like beaver, on the carcass.You have to plan a couple days ahead to process them,and by the time they are thawed out and ready to process something or someone always requires my time right then.
Large animals that are frozen when you bring them in off the trapline in winter,can be hung in a woodshed,or unheated garage for a few days but should be thawed and processed within a week or they will start to get freeze burnt\dried in the extreme dry cold outside in winter.

All my spring beaver go in the freezer in April. Don't take out until December to flesh and stretch. I rub the flesh side with water and roll them up tail 1st before I put them in. Have never had problems in that period of time. Put all my fur in when it is caught in the fall and is brought back out a few weeks to put up before shipping.

What is the purpose of rubbing the flesh side with water? Just curious. Thanks.

I was having problems with my hides getting freezer burn(dry spots) on the flesh side of my beavers. A friend told me to lightly mist the flesh side with water and rub it evenly across the hide. I started that and never had problems again. I even do that with some coyotes if they are going to be in the freezer for a couple of months before they get fleshed and boarded. It really helped.

I do that too(wet the leather side before rolling) with non fatty skins rolled up green that I am going to keep in the freezer.

Check the freezer often, said WissMiss. Nancy that is the gospel truth!

I had a breaker go bad that cost me about 20 coyotes and 35 coon. By the time I noticed it I thought a pint of Hiawatha valley bait was open in my shed. Then I cracked the lid on the freezer and almost puked. I fixed it and refroze the entire thing, that way the smell wasn’t as bad.

Now I have a small light with a LED bulb on the same outlet as my freezers. Every time I go outside I can see the glow in the shed windows and if I don’t I’m on it ASAP.

We lost power a few weeks ago for about 60 hours. I did not touch my freezer until power came back on and I used a laser thermometer to check when it did. It was still 19 degrees f in there!

Great advice everyone

I line my freezer with cardboard to keep fur from freezing to the sides. Quite humid here.