I have never heard of anyone catching a black phase beaver in my area. Are they worth any more than other beavers? I'd like to get one to tan.

I've Caught 9 out of Two colonies since 1986
...For me they're rare , I should have had them tanned.
When I sold them the buyers paid the same.

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How many from Wisconsin 330? I've only caught two... sold the first one and hooping this one

Caught 4 out of a cranberry bog in 1980. Got $50/each from a fur buyer.

They are not around here either.Bummer

I catch about one about every year or two. They are beautiful...but pays the same from the fur buyer in my experience.

Yeah, I think I'll start tanning them. Now I'll probably never catch another one.

Sometimes you run into colonies of them. If I find a colony I try to leave em alone in hopes of there becoming more colonies in the vicinity.
I'd like to catch more to get a blanket made.

About 8% of the beaver I sent to NAFA graded as black.

I don't think that would be uncommon for guys in Northern Wisconsin and the UP.

Caught 6 a few years back a stone's throw from my back door ,never seen any others since .

Its not a color phase that's common here,but they're not rare either.I had a old furbuyer from northern lower Michigan tell me he saw more from the upper peninsula than the northern lower peninsula,and he attributed that to cold darker trout streams up here.By darker I think he was referring to the iron content of the water.I'm not sure he was right but it was as good as any thing I could come up with for the color phase

They can just dye beaver black so I would not think they would be worth more.

I haven't trapped much for beaver the last 10-12 years, but I used to get them regularly when I did. There were ponds/colonies where I expected them to be black. I didn't keep track of the numbers I caught, but was a bunch over the years. I don't believe I ever got a nickle more for a black one than I did a "regular" colored beav. I have the full skin/pelt of a 50 pound black frozen that I planned to do a swimming lifesize mount of, but it always gets put off. Someday.

To the tourist market and the native sewers in Alaska, natural black beaver is much more desirable. There is something about the natural luster that doesn’t happen with dyed pelts.

At the NAFA sales, the blacks almost always brought more money. There were 2 or 3 buyers that were always after them.

I have never caught one in Washington, I have caught hundreds of beaver since 1970.
I have caught a couple of black one in SE Alaska over the past 20 years.

I would be curious to know if Beaverpeeler or Any other guys in Oregon have caught any.

A good percentage of beaver here are Dark/xdk.These beaver have a bit of brown on the cheeks,and occasionally on the rim around the back legs.
A true black beaver is about 1% of the harvest and is totally black.

I have noticed darker fur coming from areas with more acidic soils. And conversely sweet high pH soils tend to have light colored fur.

My catch of totally black beaver always ran about 6%,received the same price as the browns.But the blacks are so much prettier.
Tom

I get the occassional black beaver, I think I've got 3-4 this year. Generally at auction they run about double similar size XDK's.

But have you ever caught a truly black beaver in Oregon. I have noticed over the years that in western Washington the color of beaver fur is a lot more consistent than in most other sections of beaver. Again, never caught a black one in Washington.

Came across this older thread and wanted to comment. I remember reading in a fur history book that they mostly came from around Lake Superior area. When I lived there I regularly had 10% black beavers, all out of the same drainage, which runs into L Superior