Set up this pond which had a beaver problem. Neighbors reported beavers moved in 2 year ago and started a lodge around a tree on an island.
First night was really rainy and windy and there was no activity at all. So I added a few more sets and some lure.
The second morning I had 5 beavers, 2 adult and 3 juveniles.
Big male weighed in at 51 lbs.
question to the group, are these young ones 1-year or 2-year olds?

How much do the smaller ones weigh?They look to be 2 adults and 3 year and a halfs.
Check the big female's teats,if she nursed young this summer you may be able to tell.

This. Also necropsy the breeding female and count placental scars so you have an idea of how many young of the year you may be dealing with.

At 22 lbs I would say they are 1.5 year olds and not this years kits. If they were born in mid April instead of mid May and they had a great food supply they could be this years kits. Around here kits run about 17 lbs this time of year.

they weigh 18 to 22 lbs

bad karma, you're kidding, right?

Notice Bad Karma, who is an excellent trapper, ( one of the best) said breeding females. He also lives much further North where beaver are born and bred much later than the deep south.

Down here Government trappers talk about this to impress customers that have little or no knowledge of beaver here. Here the beaver are pregnant during the time of the year that beaver can be readily caught which is December through Feb. They are caring Fetuses or 7 to 10 day embryo's by December.. My son and I opened a lot up 0ver 100 females in late season. They always had 4. So we use the number as 4. Every time I found more at a colony I found another female and reasons why, if there were not 4 more little ones.

Ours are normally born in early March and bred in November. This in my opinion makes the necropsy method, counting placenta scars, moot here.

Nope, that's how us Biologists ALSO examine otters for population density studies....scars in the uterus.

My thoughts. Those are this years young. So you still have last years young around, if they have been there for two years

Typical here
Two in the 45+ lbs
2-4 upper 20s-low30s
2-4 upper teens- 21lbs

But I have caught up to 8 young if the year on one location. Two years running ( can't catch the really large female there). Last spring I caught 5 mature males 39-48 lbs at this location

Farmer stopped by my place last Friday and told me the dam building just started again, no building since I caught the last juvenile last may

This has been the pattern there for going on five years now

I've taken females in mid June up here in michigan still carrying young

thanks for all the input. Really appreciated! No offense, I understand the Biologist approach.
It has been very quiet in the pond since Sunday, no fresh sign.

pulled two more out the pond, about the same size as the previous 3 juveniles.
saw them swimming around last night and slapping their tails at me while I was setting traps and putting lure out. Used Bob Wilson's Green Beaver lure and some castor I had extracted from the previous catch. Sure enough, they were waiting for me in the morning!
thinking that's it for this one.

Good job!