Just curious what the % of trappers in Minnesota put up your own beaver? Are there still a lot of carcass buyers in your state?

Just Trapper Les.

Chris

Kay Bachman used to put up everyones beaver there.

I try to put up all mine, but sometimes I sell them skin and frozen.

I sell mine green - I have back issues that cannot tolerate fleshing the darn things. There is a good buyer just down the road from me (Matt Carlson) in Jacobson who buys thousands of beaver in the round each spring.

Many buyers in the state are buying carcass beaver right now.

Typically I put up all of mine but this Spring I just sold them on the carcass. Matt it only 10 minutes away and my garage is no longer really set up for putting up fur.

I put up my fall caught beaver during the winter (to a point). Spring beaver get sold green.

The dog gets a good percentage of the meat. Cheaper and a lot better for them that dog food.

I once tried do sell the carcasses (was too much of a hassle around here). Had the warden (who is now a friend) contact me as his "superior" (She) said it was illegal and to go after me... Even though its clearly written in the regs that you can sell beaver. Figures. Welcome to the govt's way of promoting the incompetent.

So how many beaver are being caught per year in Minnesota? Oregon used to see harvests of around 10,000 but in the last couple of years it is down around 10% of that. No carcass buyers in our state that I know of. Not one.

Always have skinned and finished my beaver. Put up for others and bought carcasses for years when we ran our fox farm.

One year I did sell about 100 beaver on the carcass to Sundrud Furs when he was still buying. Ran a long line in the valley and just couldn’t keep up with the running and skinning.

So how are carcass beaver prices right now?

They must be higher than finished skins only because they are buying the skins the castors and the meat.
So a skin alone not put up worth $30 would need to add $6 or so avg for the castor and $10 for the meat.That would put a carcass beaver value avg at $45.

Heading out to the shed to skin a few beaver and rats.
Been selling tanned rats lately for $35 ea.

That's a great a great price you're getting Boco. Strike while the iron is hot

I do. I like the meat. I caught 51 in 10 days of trapping. Enough for me. I could trap more but then I would have to sell carcass. Leave plenty of seed for other trappers and next year.

That is a nice haul for 10 days. Congrats!

Not a big market by any means,but local people who are looking for tanned fur buy for making hats,or order hats.

Yes,very good.
5 a day is about perfect if you are putting up your own beaver,can run the line and have plenty of time for skinning on the line or after supper.

Minus the cost of skinning and fleshing unless you work for free.

We used to bring a beaver along to the Big Island Rondy just for Foxy Lady (Kay) to clean skin as a demo. Quite the gal. I always enjoyed listening to her stories. Pics from 2015.

More on Kay Bachman from a beaver skinning DVD she had out years ago.

Nice article women like that are few and far between. I’ll admit I got lucky.

Yep lived right next to them. I used bring my carcasses to them for their fox farm, years ago.

I remember her demos. She was a heck of a lady and a far better skinner than I will ever be. I think Wheelers was a little sweet on her at one time too.

Thats why I said 30 avg.Took it into account.

Last time I talked with Kay was at a convention in Thunder bay,quite a while ago.maybe mid,or late 00.

Carcass market here is running in the 22 to 26 dollar range, we don't use that funny money with the queen on the front.

More about Mrs. Bachman from MPR radio.https://www.mprnews.org/story/2007/12/17/championskinner
It's well worth opening up the link and listening to the interview.

If anyone has that DVD and would sell it, I'm more than interested.


A visit to Kay Bachman is a little like going to grandma's house. She greets you with a big smile, there's fresh cookies and coffee on the counter in her neat as a pin kitchen.

Oh, and there's a dead beaver lying on a small table in the dining room.

"I got a little guy because I figured they're faster to do than a big guy," says Bachman.

Speed is of the essence if she wants to retain her title as North America's fastest woman beaver skinner.

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Skinning
Using a well worn, rounded knife that looks something like a big thumb, Kay Bachman deftly starts slicing away the beaver hide. She pulls the skin with one hand and cuts it loose from the body with quick, short strokes of her knife.MPR Photo/Dan Gunderson
Using a well worn, rounded knife that looks something like a big thumb, Bachman deftly starts slicing away the beaver hide. She pulls the skin with one hand and cuts it loose from the body with quick, short strokes of her knife.

It's something she's done thousands of times.

"You take 35 years times about three months and I could do 50 a day for three months, seven days a week. So if somebody wants to get ambitious and do the math," says Bachman with a chuckle.

Add it all up and Kay Bachman has skinned more than 150,000 beavers.

It's a disappearing skill that was once in high demand in Minnesota where the beaver helped build more than one family fortune.

Kay Bachman's skinning career started more than 50 years ago when she married a trapper. He ran the trap line, she did the skinning. Then a local fur buyer asked if she'd skin beaver for $1.50 a hide.

"I thought, 'I can stay home make some money and do this.' I had four young ones at home, so I just started skinning at home and it just developed into one thing after another. It was a normal part of making a nickel at home and not having to hire a baby sitter and go out," Bachman explains.

"So I'd usually get up about 7:00 am and get the kids off to school, sit down and start skinning. It was nice because we had linoleum on our floors and I could bring in 50 beaver and do them right in the living room and still take care of my other jobs in the house. Of course I didn't have a lot of friends over. The women just did not want to come and have tea with me," says Bachman with a hearty laugh.

Kay Bachman hasn't done much skinning since her husband died six years ago. But she says she was raised to be self sufficient, and wielding a knife was an essential skill.

"It's something I've done all my life. I'd go out and shoot my own cow in the pasture, skin her out and bring her home and cut her up and put her in the freezer," says Bachman matter of factly. "It was a normal way of life for me."

Award display
Kay Bachman has won the title as national champion beaver skinner four times in a row.MPR Photo/Dan Gunderson
There's a rhythm to the skinning as Bachman methodically removes the beaver skin.

"This is so relaxing. To me it's therapy. I can just sit and forget the world exists and skin and skin all day," says Bachman. "Some women sit and knit and crochet and I skin beaver."

It takes 15 minutes from start to finish. That's a bit slower than her competition times, but she says it's a good warmup. Her winning time in competition is about 30 minutes, and that includes mounting the pelt on a board after the skinning is completed.

Kay Bachman spends her retirement traveling to trapping conventions and gun shows where she sells handmade fur hats. She occasionally visits classrooms to talk about the role of beaver trapping in Minnesota's history.

Kay Bachman will travel to East Bay Ontario later this winter to defend her beaver skinning title.

Gallery

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Kay Bachman, beaver lady
Kay Bachman, from Detroit Lakes, is preparing to defend her title as North America's champion beaver skinner.MPR Photo/Dan Gunderson

We don’t have a market like that here. I used to buy carcasses off an old trapper for “5 of her majesty’s notes” a piece when I was younger for bear hunting. I read in our Wildlife Act recently that we can’t do that, but we can “give” them away.
Strange, how one can drive 1 hour south and the market completely changes….lol

I do, but almost gave in to the carcass market this spring. About the time I was ready to give in the carcass market took a dive, as the main local buyer was swamped.