Hello all. I have a question about keeping my hides for more months than I have in past years. I wanted to keep them to be tanned this year.

I have some beavers I got back in November 2023 (scraped, dried on board, now sitting in a pile, fur-to-fur or skin-to-skin). Sitting the basement c. 55 degrees F.

Question: Two of the hides have little bits of underfur in little tufts sitting on top of the fur. These two furs were sitting fur-side to fur-side against each other. Could this have been when I combed the furs after taking them off the board? Or is something eating my furs?

Just wondering if anyone had experienced anything similar. Thank you.

if you have carpet beetles eating your furs, the leather side is hole-y. The loose bits of underfur are just that most of the time.

put them in the freezer or bugs will get them

I would go through them with a fine tooth comb and beat them over a white sheet and see if you get anything dropping out of there. In the mountain man days the St. Louis merchants hired men to rub down pelts with distilled spirits to kill bugs. Both the men and bugs had a good time I'll bet!

As far as storage if you can keep things cool and low humidity even if they turn yellowish I think they're OK. 55F is a little warmer than i would like to see so if you have freezer space consider that.

If you have dermestid beetles eating your fur(which they will) you will notice the frass

Is there a way to keep dried pelts over the summer without putting in the freezer? I did very little trapping and only have a few hides. Not worth shipping or driving anywhere to sell. I was thinking of putting them in a box with moth balls.

Large vacuum sealed bags with moth balls has worked for me in the past but perfur to store them in the freezer when possible.

Yep, this is good advice. Don't think that you can keep furs without freezing them, lots of trappers make that mistake and think they're just fine.

Thanks everyone!! I learned a lot here.

I plan to get them out in the mail soon to wherever I'll have them tanned. Can't fit them in the freezer all stretched and dried. Good to know about the yellowish thing too.

I will plan this weekend to blow them out with the shop-vac too, maybe that will help.

You can vacseal them with a hand warmer added and stored in a cool, dark place, don't necessarily have to freeze them.

Get them in the freezer quick or they are going to be bug dust !!!

w

I tried hanging them too, spraying Konk about once a week. By mid June I noticed the little shells on the floor. One beaver was eaten, a hole about the size of a dime by one ear. I brought them to FHA about an hour away so they could keep them in their freezers. I just bought a small freezer a few months ago that I leave behind the garage so I’m ready for the spring beaver run. Think I’ll sell this one and upgrade to a medium size though.

Dont replace the freezer Jake,add another one.
I have 3 freezers, two for fur, one for raw fur and one for dried fur.You can always unplug one when not needed.(mine always seem to be needed,lol.
In an emergency if one breaks down I can pull out the dried fur temporarily and transfer the perishables to the working ones.
If you keep dried fur in a freezer make sure it is frost free or always fully defrosted.if it breaks down and you dont notice it a heavily frosted freezer will soak your dried fur and they will rot.

I put my spring beaver in a sealed barrel w/moth balls, they looked stale when I sold them last week, I was happy with the price!

Stale looking beaver still have underfur...and I think the felt buyers are seeing that once again their needs will not be filled this season. With robust hat sales they don't want to get caught without supplies a year or two down the road.

Wait until the felters figure out how much money they can save by letting the dermestids separate the fur from the leather.
Totally bug eaten pelts with all the leather gone will be top notch beaver,lol.