I have a few ziplock bags of fresh coyote anal glands from this seasons harvest. I would like to make some lure out of it and I’m looking for pointers. I’m looking to age some, and make some lure out of fresh frozen. Should I wait until closer to season starts to make it, or start now and let the fresh frozen age? The glands were cut out of the carcass and put into ziplock bags and frozen immediately.

Cut any hair off and wash all feces of. If you want quality glands it's essential. Aged glands take a long time to break down. At least a year and alot of guys go two years. My fresh glands I let break down at least a month in warm weather. Testing is essential as I've seen some pretty erratic responses to coyote glands and gland formulations. Definitely harder to make them work consistently and effectively than other kinds of formulations. I've got some aged glands and a commercial gland formulation out Testing right now.
BTW welcome to trapperman!

Thank you! I’ve been following these forums for years now, finally decided to make an account to interact with others…how do you go about breaking down your glands to age them? I’ve got a limited supply and would like to not waste them right off the bat..I appreciate you commenting back!

I myself just clean, grind and then put in a jar out of the sunlight in a building. And let time do its thing. If you clean them up good I don't think you can really ruin them. They break down so slow that I've never really seen them get what I'd considered rotten or bad. But others on here have more experience than me at preparing them. Cleaning them up is the most critical step I've seen in my experience.

I like adding a gall bladder or two to help break em down

Chop them up with a butcher knife, then into the food processor to chop/grind them. Partially frozen helps.

Get your glands as small as possible before the aging process begins. This will speed up the process and provide a much better texture in the end and save extra work down the road.

I prefer to age all our glands indoors. Always have done it this way. Exterior heat exposure gland aging changes the natural fresh gland odor greatly. Do a batch of each then compare each batch after a couple years and see what the odor speaks to you about. I want my glands to retain as much of the animal's basic odor as possible.

The aging process can greatly affect the animal's acceptance or express cautious behaviors when they encounter a gland lure. This explains why some have mixed results in using gland lures for coyotes. I personally have not experienced refusals in using a well-built gland lure. The amount used is another problem that trappers shoot themselves in the foot. Some keep having this logic that more is better. Less is better.

Personally I prefer to use just the anal glands. And like Mr Jameson stated cut / grind them fresh before aging them as they will ferment and break down a lot faster and save you from having to grind them when their odor is really loud. Place the cut glands in a clean sterilized jar and leave enough head room for expansion, place in a warm place out of direct sunlight. I place the species labeled jars of glands to be aged and rotted down in a small apartment sized refrigerator that I rigged with a digital thermostat to control a 60-watt shielded light bulb inside which keeps a constant temperature at or near 80 degrees. (An idea I got from Russ Carman's book)

To put up glands fresh I start out by placing a couple ounces of concentrated urine of that species into a clean sterilized quart jar with about a 1/4 teaspoon of zinc valerate and shake it well. I cut the glands into pieces with a razor blade knife and add them to the jar of concentrated urine / zinc valerate solution. As the jar fills with glands, I will add more urine as needed. I can later grind or process further as needed.

I use the same process for fox, coyote, fisher, and bobcat and process the glands right from the carcass throughout the trapping season. It is my opinion that glands that have NOT been frozen produces a better odor and end product as I believe freezing kills some of the beneficial microbes and bacteria within the gland and shorts them of their full potential and true odor.

Good information. Thanks all