I have not trapped beaver commercially since the price crashed. I do snare a few beaver under ice every year to eat and dog feed. Rather than process the hides at a loss, I get more value by feeding it to the dogs.

Well said Boco!! I will be starting a line next week for 3 weeks! Cant wait!! Just enjoying what the good lord provides!

I doubt the hatter market has provided a decent wage since the early fur boom, but has been providing a continued market for section 3 goods. Unfortunately with limited demand for heavy good it is what we are left with. Given the inflation and value of todays dollar what would an average beaver price need to be to make trapping beaver "worth it".

"Beavers are overpopulated in parts of Saskatchewan, to the point where more than 200 rural municipalities offer bounties. Last year alone, some 38,000 beaver tails were turned in. With fur prices extremely low, few trappers are targeting beavers, so the ones that are killed for the bounty are typically left to rot. "

"Countywide beaver bounties are not an uncommon practice. When research what type of bounty to put in place, the auditor’s office compared rates and requirements from 25 different counties, including Freeborn, Mower and Blue Earth. Rates for the bounties ranged from $20 to $100, and proof of trapping a beaver also fell all over the map."



I think this is where we are headed. Except for here.

The way he does it is he catches the easy ones and moves on..if a landowner wants all the beaver gone he charges 50 a beaver to catch them because there's more cost.

The beaver you're trapping will have more expenses in them because while you're fighting the last butthole Jerry is down the road catching 10 easy ones.

And the way he does it.. catching the easy ones and.moving on allows him to catch more beaver in a day which keeps the cost down..

Jerry needs to average 10 beaver a day to keep the cost at 10.00 a beaver.

When his average drops below 10 a day for a few days he moves on to a new area.

To make it work you have to have a healthy beaver population.

He's done what you doing and he doesn't usually anymore because it wasn't fun for him anymore.

He's fought and caught some.of the toughest beaver out there and he never made any money on them by the time
he was done..and it wasn't worth he aggravation.to him.

He spent a month after one beaver in a pond then the guy didn't even pay him. He said it was the hardest beaver he'd ever caught in his life.

And some of yall will say he needs to charge more but where we are 50 is about maxed out. And even at 500 a beaver it's no fun for him and he won't do it anymore.

If there ends up being absolutely no fur.market he'll go back to that but he doesn't want o.

And I know you're not selling your deer but you do have unrecoverable expense involved in producing tha deer and we can eat the beaver meat


You enjoy the hunting so you don't look at the expense involved in getting tha deer to.your table the same way as you're looking at the expenses involved in trapping beaver.

I'm going to try to piece some of these stories together. I'm not going mention names. Somebody leaves the house at 5 am and returns at 7pm. Then they skin. The non-beaver catch covers the expenses, the beaver is all profit. I'm confused about the price, but we will call it $30 total beaver. I'm catching 10 a day. $30 multiplied by 10 beaver is $300

If I ignore the processing time we got $300 divide by 14 hours $21 an hour.

I think I got this?

Gotcha. I do actually enjoy doing eradication work on beaver.

Around here, when they block a stream or drainage ditch, they can easily flood 50 homes or 50 acres of farm ground, so while I am not comfortable giving my rates and billing structure on a public forum, I will say that in the end I am able to make a wage that is comparable to or better than what I could expect if I were to work at one of the higher paying local jobs. So when it comes to skinning them for an extra $13 dollar average (if it were legal, which it is not if I am being paid to remove the animal), boco is right, I am too lazy, aka too tired at the end of the day to spend the time and effort to skin and board them, or time to skin and money to run a freezer as the case may be.

I have learned something from all of this - some folks CAN make money at these prices and are happy with it. If those who can make money can catch enough to supply what the hatters need, then my basic premise of everyone else making $ while the producers of fur do not make money was an incorrect assumption. But I do get the sense that not very many trappers can manage to make a wage at these prices. Only the best of the best, and those with ideal situations of high population and low overhead. Which is of course fine. In my situation though theres just no way to make a decent wage, so I would be pushed out of the fur market. Like many though, I love it and would still get out and catch a few….

In our area a "regular" job Is 10.00 to 14.00 an area..the aluminum plant..which is our highest paying job in the area starts at 20 to 23 an hour.

Jerry makes 20.00 an hour at his farm job so he can make just as much trapping beaver.

You forgot one important part-the $2000 dollars a week to stay at a remote cabin for a week you would have to pay if you were not a trapper.Just by having a remote cabin on a trapline you are putting $2000 dollars in your pocket for every week you stay out there,hunting fishing and trapping.Money you would have to pay someone else(an outfitter) for that privilege.

I might know who he is talking about. I trap four four months every winter. The number of traps I have out varies, from about six to 200! Haven’t gotten close to the 200 in several years!

Glad to hear your at least keeping your toes wet.
I could never run 200 beaver traps unless I farmed out the skinning.
!50 beaver a day would be too much for me,lol.

Boco, that 200 trap claim must include mouse traps in his fur shed!

Never said 200 traps for beaver!! 20-30 for beaver and otter, the rest for rats, cat, coyote, etc..

Newhouse they keep ya hoppin im sure.

..Jerry runs between 150 and 200 when he's at peak but like you..it's for various species.

Right now he has about 170 out..110 for marten and the rest are for beaver and rats.ect.