I saw Dale Billingsley Boraxing his beaver while trapping in Arkansas. I put up twenty yesterday that way and I’m hoping they’ll dry quicker. I have trouble here occasionally with drying in my open air fur shed. I blow a fan most of the time. Does anyone else do this mainly in the south?

Never used borax on beaver. I've only used on fox, coyotes, and cats, those fur out critters.

I’ve used it on my cats paws when I leave feet on.

I put some on the head of the beaver pelt cause I didn't get it too clean and it dried great but when I took it off the board it has curled some. Maybe that's normal, I don't know.

Here are a couple pictures. I won't use boax again. I'm gonna put a couple boards on it to see if I can flatten it back out.

Borax acts as an astringent. It will dry out things pretty good. It definitely is great for questionable areas of a hide. Good on ear butts, feet, split tails, heads/nose or other areas of moisture that are prone to souring during the drying process. It can warp a hide and really dry it out. A light coating, then brushed off works best. Too much is over kill and can make a hide like a board.

Thank you. That’s what I was asking. Beaver head and tail area would be good, maybe down middle of back. The sides dry out good. IF the hides either warped or dried like a board is there any negatives in the hatter market? I’d hate to put a hundred on the table no one wanted.

KY, get yourself a dehumidifier. I have an enclosed area 6'X16 with a two gallon unit and a fan. Pelts completely ready to get off the boards in three days. No other heat with outside temps averaging 40F and very high humidity.

This is what I have in my small fur room....12'x20'. One dehumidifier and one box fan....no heat.

Don't have any drying problems and I'm in the deep South.

Scrape them good and you wont have the un necessary added expense of having to buy borax.
And they will dry uniformly.

I have a whole house dehumidifier we use in summer but I have an old fashioned fur shed. I’d have to dehumidify the whole holler. 😁. They dry good with good temps and a fan blowing usually but I find myself pulling fur out of freezer during down times, floods. High humidity periods. Times I can’t trap. I can dry about 26 at a time. Just trying to figure the quickest way to go through several cycles of that before the fur sale sneaks up on me.


I think I need to box in an enclosed area like you guys suggested. Three days, wow.

KY, that's what I would do. I understand what you're up against, I actually have an open pole barn I do all my fur handling in, but a separate enclosed area that is just for drying. It's insulated too.

Exactly the way that have used it. Sparingly but still used if worried about an area.

I started Boraxing whole pelt but have lately done a few just hard and tail area and they seem to be drying at the same rate, all together. I’m going to try to come up with a small beaver board drying dehumidifier room before next year. Another option is to come up with about twenty more boards but they take up a lot of shed space.