From what I've read beaver leave the main lodge when they're 2 years old (maybe 3) to establish a new home, find a mate, start a family/colony... Hopefully they'll find a mate the first year on their own. If not, then the next year.
But what time of year are they striking out on their own? Late spring? Summer? Early fall?

Two years ago I was asked to get rid of some beaver causing road flooding by a little feeder creek. I was asked late in the season and got a few by the end of March when season closes here. I thought I had them all but apparently not. I was given a depredation permit a month later and caught two 2 year olds in late April/early May. I had always assumed that those were two that were ready to leave home and hadn't left yet. Is it possible they were already new ones moving into a place freshly vacant?

Last year I wasn't at that area. This year I got a call again and caught one 39lb female on Feb. 12 that was not pregnant. I had assumed at first she had a mate but there isn't anything else there... and she wasn't pregnant. I expect this was her first full year on her own and she'd found a place but no mate yet. It's a little foolish of me because I knew they set out on their *own* but I guess I thought that by the time they were settling in they had found a mate. Obviously, before they find a mate they need to live somewhere.
When, during the non-trapping season, do you look for sign that another is moving in?

I'm in Nebraska and I expect there's a little variation based on latitude but there's a lot of knowledge in a lot of heads on here.
Thanks!

Beaver disperse on the spring freshet.
Adult beaver breed in late winter(feb) before the juvenile beaver disperse.They have their young here last week of May or first week in June.
Dispersing juveniles will pair up in late spring or summer set up a home range and breed here,the following feb.
Adult beaver that are paired and have lost a mate in winter will not be able to breed in Feb,but will breed if they find a mate right at breakup.These beaver have a late litter and the offspring from these late breeders will be very small in October.
For management purposes pairs of beavers are normally left alone for a couple seasons before trapping the colony.
Exception is nuisance beaver.Most nuisance beaver are newly paired up beavers that have moved in to a vacant pond where nuisance beavers have been removed the previous year,especially if there is a good food supply.

Occasionally a whole colony of beaver will leave an area and move up or downstream if they have depleted the food supply.

Where I am there is also a secondary Mini dispersal in September during the heavy rains that occur here at that time of year.
These are normally newly paired up beaver that have been living in marginal habitat that does not have a supply of feed to sustain them thru winter.Also rarely an entire established colony will move at this time.

That time is now in central Georgia.

For Us it's April-may

Thanks!

I wonder if the further south you go the timeline should be adjusted for weather/daylight? Just a thought?

Were a full five to six weeks ahead of you Boco.

It been happening down here for over a month.

Yup, got beaver popping up everywhere.

They’re not moving a bunch here yet but they’re starting to when water is soft.

Interesting

Spring thru summer

That'll cover it ^^^

Our beaver on the big river(s) I trap don't build lodges or dams. I believe that the kits tend to disperse after they 1 year old + when they are hitting L to XL for sizes. These are the sizes I catch in areas I trapped harder the year before. Big rains and flooding seem to get them moving around a lot.

Occasionally over the years I have seen where an early freeze or whatever caused a beaver to den up in a pond or riverbank and freeze out or run out of food and when caught very thin…starving. Major miscalculation!