A little back story on this. Go back before 2014. We have a swamp that has a few beaver ponds. The lower one was over 250 yards long by 100 plus wide. There is a small pond above that to the east. Above that there is another pond about 100+ yards by 100 yards. The only pond that I have ever seen a lodge was the upper most pond. The others may have had bank dens but I never really looked for one (I wasn't a trapper then). I would say about 600 yards from the top of the upper pond to the dam on the lower pond. Nothing changed for close to 20 years. Then the dang things decided that they needed to move north. They started building north of the upper most pond. Problem is that we have a cabin there that we like to keep the yard mowed. I managed to deter them for several years.

In 2014 the lower dam washed out. Now it is nothing more than a swamp with the remnants of the dam. The upper ponds have been maintained, mostly. The upper pond did wash out the same time but it was rebuilt the following year. About two years after that is the time when they really started building further north. Two years ago I trapped a 50+ pounder out of the pond close to the cabin. That took care of the problem then. It seems that I have a problem every two to three years now.

This year I happened to notice over the summer that they built it all back up. Only they went all out on it. I use to mow out to 120 yards or so. Over the summer I couldn't mow much past the 50 yard mark.

They have made a few rather small ponds. The lower one has the lodge. It is (now) about 12-15' at the base and about 5' high. It is bigger than it was a few years back. When our beaver season opened I set a couple traps. I got a 50ish pounder the second night. I noticed that there was still some activity. I had set on the upper most part when I had got the one. I set a couple more traps and got another one in the 50ish pound range. There was still activity but they were not on the upper most part so I started moving closer. I ended up with two in the 20-25 pound range and one in the 10ish pound range. So, a total of 5 beaver from the same lodge? 2 50ish, 2 25ish and one little guy.

The big question: Did I get them all? I have not seen any activity but everything has frozen up. I only want to get the ones that are close to the cabin. I would like to keep the ones that are about 300 yards from the cabin, so this is not a total eradication job. Just the ones flooding the cabin area. The lodge/pond that I am having problems with is about 100 yards from the cabin.

Did I get the problem beavers? Did I get all of them and the dam is going to wash out again? Am I going to have problems again in the spring?

Any other tips would be appreciated.

BTW, this was all done with 330's in channels or where they were coming out of the water to get stuff.

On the plus side, I can now skin a beaver in 30-40 minutes. I have been tubing them. That is what I am use to doing so I just went with it. I plan on tanning them myself and making stuff out of them.

I’ll just put this out there…if you think you’re going to be able to only kill the ones by your cabin while letting the colony live that is only 300 yards away, you’re wasting your time!

You may not have gotten them all but to avoid future problems you need to.

Please explain. I have noticed that they move up every two to three years ish for the last ten years.

I am wondering if I caught them from this lodge or if the came up from the lower one.

I actually live on this property. I do not mind catching a few each year if that is what it would take. I guess I could have asked what is the best way to mange a beaver colony?

You will likely get 2 year olds coming in regularly each year or so from the main colony. They tend to get tossed out by big Momma once they reach 2 years of age.
I deal with that scenario on a yearly basis doing nuisance work.

Like Carl mentioned, the main colony will repopulate the colony by your cabin on a regular basis. Also, adult beaver travel considerable distance from their main colony. Once dams are established, it will only take one or two beaver to maintain them…and they definitely will.

Even if you only set by your cabin colony, you could easily be catching beaver from the further colony too. They travel that far on a regular basis.

Thanks for replies. Another question. Would one colony maintain more than one lodge?

No