Pretty much what I meant...you're post is much more eloquent Clay. Lol

My theory always was that leather supports the pushing of fur. With rats as the season progresses, in a normal, healthy setting, body weight increases. Fat levels rise and leather markings fade until full prime. Full prime holds high fat with heavy leather and fur. In my area that occurs in March. There is a short period of perfection that gets interrupted by open water and mating. This starts an accelerated downhill spiral. Amazing how fast they go they other way. Not exactly sure but I would guess that beaver, being late primers are similar.

I would also guess that those beaver that never develop the heavy leather are less desirable.

good read thank guys

Interesting discussion. I wonder how much they continue to dry when when sitting around for weeks/monthes waiting for a sale?

For beaver here under ice for 6 months or more i don't believe thier fat reserves are at peak when fully prime? Maybe they need the extra fur in spring to maintain core temperature as fat reserves are depleated ?

It’s theory based on observation. I will say that our beaver here are generally very healthy prior to break up. I don’t catch a lot of beaver but the ones I’ve caught in the last weeks have been mimicking the rats getting increasingly heavy. I believe it is lifestyle related as much as anything. Critters below deck have less to do, so they lay around and eat. Lock me in the house for a couple weeks and hide the scale. Lol.

I believe many beaver here get hard up for food by mid to late march. Some even earlier depending on how many beaver and how much food they put up.

That doesn’t surprise me. Here they almost always store more than they need. We do have winter but I’m sure other places have it much tougher.

Been called a lot of things, but eloquent is a first lol.
You still got all them put up otter?

Lol figured you'd get a chuckle outta that. Yeah still got bunch put up otter. Gonna try the sale tomorrow and hope Danny is there. I need freezer room down here anyhow..they'll at least bring market price I figure. Sent some back north earlier for processing for pound market.

Good luck on that Dean. Let us know how it turns out for you.

The arctic blast has put an unwanted wrinkle in my trapping efforts. Hopefully by tomorrow or the day after I can get back out there. Even my pelts I had hanging in the shed ready to put up today were froze solid this morning. My wife seemed a little unhappy with me bringing them in next to the heating stove.

cabin fever has set in here

I have handled some storage beaver that were +10 years old, and they gained weight in the freezer, and the leather is real yellow, and a few other words not accepted here.
I was use to moving 5X 40 kg bags on trolleys and a stack of 50 was ...what's that french word for XXXXX difficult

Maybe Gibb has some of his frost scrapped to weigh now after his ytube production.

Thin leather of Northern beaver are a dream to sew when making garments

Ive been pondering on this question all night. (which is good) I do believe that nutrition is a major contributor to fur growth and development. Perhaps "prime" or as close to it as an individual can get does occur when the body is in good physical condition. I have noticed that typically as time passes, over winter, in good habitat, muskrats as a whole (local population) gain weight in body as well as leather. The trade refers to this as heavy and juicy. Pelt markings slowly disappear during this process. Which may be coincidental? I speculate on the reasons why but can confirm it does occur. Beaver and muskrats are both late priming rodents so I will assume there are similarities.

Maybe an individual under stress, weight loss, never quite reaches prime or primes earlier, when times are still good?

I guess that my belief in this theory continues, that it requires heavy leather to support heavy fur. As fat depleats and leather dissolves i suspect fur density also suffers. Thanks Dirt!

When you look at some northern beaver leather you see it is just a thinner skin to start with.
There is a joke that if you want a coffee table you= "just needed 4 sticks poked in the leg holes and a Louisiana pelt " and it could support 4 coffee cups and a bottle of bourbon for the boys.
those are some thick skinned beaver been my experience fast ,

within a week of open water season the rats do loose all that fat and then the hide breaks down these are known as sheaders where you see the kidney spots

I sometimes see older beaver that are past prime and they have close to zero fat and the leather is thinner. Often a patchwork of old scars. You can tell they're old because quite a few of the tail scales are discolored a whitish color. Prime and good health go hand in hand I think.

I have caught starving beaver in April that have chewed out of their house to acess food. These beaver had beautiful prime fur,but noticeably thin leather.
I have also caught female beaver under ice in february,that had late litters(can tell by the small size kits that time of year).These late litter females had very poor fur,sparse guardhair and shedding under fur, same as a late spring/early summer beaver.

A lot of beaver here come out in late march and april through holes in the ice to get at fresh feed. Ice goes out around may 1. You will see some coming out during warm periods in feb. They will all be in different physical conditions.

I have had one spot here that the beaver came up the rod here with so many holes when I pulled them, they looked like junk. Is that what you do with them? How do you board the XXXL? Everything over about 55 lbs. for me nails to the end of the board and I have to put it upside-down for an oval stretch. They come back from the tannery with almost a football shape.
I have to see if I can post a picture. The angle is distorted but you can see the point.

Those bites are all bloodshot-happened when the beaver was alive,or right away after he died before rigor.Most likely in a lured set.

I just put a string around 14 pelts (of various sizes) that I have on the bench and they were under 15 lbs. on my luggage scale.
Boco, I had a couple on castor mound set that came out that way, just in that one hole.