Was up in Tug Hill NY until the snow came last week. Working on beaver for the snow mobile trails and saw most beaver lodges without feed beds. There was the real cat tails, not the fake ones we are getting around here that do not have the center stalk and not the fox tail (phragmites). Do you think they live all winter on just cat tails? What is up with no feed piles out side the lodges. Also there were very few beaver chewed stick around and there was a lot of red brush growing all over the place. What are your all thoughts on the lack of feed beds/piles.......jk

Bachelor/ette

Trapped out,predated.
Are the houses and dam freshly mudded?
Also not all beavers will make a feedbed right at the house.
Do some houses have feedbeds?

Someone beat yah to em

Some colonies live on Cat tailed roots.

One Winter when my kids were very young 3,4 6yr kids I took them out in a sled scouting for beaver to trap.

We had been up in Shell lake Wisc. area all morning setting beaver ponds for a Township job I had.

When we got back to our home in Cameron...I took them out in one sled behind a sled of traps. We walked Cranberry creek pond on the South side . I took them all around the big flowage ponds edges ...I knew beaver were living on that pond because of seeing them in the summer while fishing. But look as I may I found zero cut trees or brush anywhere.

I took the traps and kids back up the big hill to the Car . I put the kiddos back in the car and looked back very frustrated. In the Dead center was a snow covered lodge surrounded by open water and cat tails.

I went back later Without my kids wearing waders and life jacket. I set conventional 330 sets in channels but they were super deep and almost scary . I made sets using fresh popple on triggers etc.... It took a long time checking empty sets ...lie 2 weeks. I saw floating big wierd roots and finally remembered reading about 1 colony that only ate cat tail roots
I made 330 sets with fresh white roots and finally caught those beaver. I also made long pole sets stacking 330s 3 deep and lowering them into those deep channels.

I was young in 91' and had never run into a situation like that .nor have I since.

*** the area was a warm spring all around the slew and beaver house built with mud and cattails no wood.
Freaky wierd.

No feed bed

I’ve got a half dozen cattail feed beds in the area I trap.

SniperB might be, we got no small ones there. BOCO yes there was fresh mud on Dams and houses-I could not get close to the houses. But we did find runs with the slit freshly disturbed. 330 trapper, could you see those feed beds of cat tails from a distance? The closest to one I could get was 150 yards. I am too old to play with waders and life jackets. Hippers and a pole to test the depths for me. And we even saw two beavers swimming at different times. Mad Scientist do those bed stick up above the water line to be seen easily, I think that is what they were doing. The biggest stretched 73 inches, definitely a 50 pounder at least I guess........jk

The biggest stretched 73 inches, definitely a 50 pounder at least I guess........jk[/quote]



Probably closer to 65 lb.
Just a guess

I have noticed some spring creeks here with current don't freeze and they can access feed along the banks all winter. In other areas some beaver here survive on lilypad tubers through the winter and only have small stockpiles of branches.

How’d you make out with those? Was thinking of that too.
Battled my way out the a pond on Saturday……what a fight. No quad/sled access, ice is dicey. Small pond way in with a small lodge & little feed bed about 30yds away. Cat tails nearby. Could hear one inside. There is a bigger lodge & pond at the next dam about 80yds further. Gonna check it out tomorrow morning. Ice should be better.
Abandoned my sleigh about half way, tipped twice, hauled basic stuff for 2 sets, forgot the poplar bud oil at home….ended up with one set near the lodge with a piece of poplar on the trigger. The plan was to try just hanging a 330 from a spring loop with white PVC pipe cotton soaked with poplar oil inside…..sounds simple……
Maybe tomorrow LOL
Rigged up an old CA army pack with frame to hold everything. Just have to hold the ice bar & chainsaw

I took six out of this location. There was one tree insight about a half a mile away. There was no brush of any kind. They were going out digging bull rush and cattail roots for food.
They had a dam made out of grass, cattails and bull rushes. I have trapped them other times when they were living on cattails alone.

The stacked "wired on" 330s were a real pain. But they worked. One beaver and the vibrant off the other traps.

With the pvc horizontal on the bent trigger wires underwater you don't need p bud oil ...leave it home.

MJM thanks for the photos that is what they must have been doing. 8117 Steve R I learned a new bit about beaver here thanks for all your replies, never stop learning. First time for me to see a lodge without a feed bed.........jk

I’m guessing that’s a creek bed that runs when there’s a higher water table? If it’s just a small pond they probably won’t breed eh? Not enough food. Apparently in Saskatchewan a couple years ago the beaver weren’t breeding in some areas because of the drought.

There was a house I could see from the road this fall and I ignored it because I could not see a developing feed bed in front of it. When I finally noticed fresh mud on it I went in to investigate and found they were using the lily pad roots in the pond. Funny thing was, they had a channel to shore where they cut some brush to add to the house but completely ignored the young Popples that were growing all along where they were cutting. I set two 330's in the channel and had the pair waiting for me the next morning. Previous beaver that had used the lodge in past years always had a feed bed there.

I've trapped ponds that had no feedbeds or trees nibbled on. In the right habitat the beaver will live totally on aquatic vegetation. The fur on those beaver were always far better than wood eating beaver.

FYI, most of these ponds had zero cattails.

Beaver can, as many above have stated, live on cattails alone. Their lodges and dams will be all cattails too, looking for all the world like giant super-sized muskrat huts. we have some extensive cattail marshes here in my area in some of the large wildlife flooding/flowages the DNR have made. Those beaver appear to do well on a cattail diet, although finding runs to set traps in under a floating mat of standing cattails can be frustrating, not to mention dangerous.

Pic from this morning. Got back to the bigger pond. Another lodge in the back ground. No visible feed bed. I cut a few small holes around until I found a deep spot……ice was a lot thinner too. PVC pipe with pop oil this time.






Shoulda done a panorama pic…sorry

Where I have seen beaver feeding on water vegetation, they went out and got roots as needed. There was no stored food. I have seen beaver houses that were made 100% out of water vegetation and looked like a giant muskrat house. There was no mud on them and they floated.

Thanks everyone, it was a first to me......jk