Do beaver typically work up stream or down stream when moving dens?

I’m on a creek that rose about 3 feet in two days. Washed the dam out and doesn’t seem to be any repair work being done. Haven’t noticed any replenishing of the feedbed either. Feels like they moved on, but not sure where to look.

I worked upstream and found the remnants of an older dam about 500 yards from the one that was just washed out. Am I right in thinking this was the same crew and they probably went further downstream after the last washout, or are they more territorial and I should expect them to start working on repairing the dam as the water levels fall?

I did have a twist off when the water was really high (sucks when the drowning lock is put on backwards). This was 3 days ago.

Where I am an established beaver colony wont move in the middle of winter even when they lose all their water(we have ice) but whole colonys can move either upstream or downstream in spring if the feed is exhausted.
They will move to where there is feed and to a place where the resident beaver have been trapped out.
Most beaver movement is dispersing juveniles on the spring freshet,or sometimes in summer because of drought related conditions.

x2

Thanks fellas. That helps.

Still waiting for the “Tom
Miranda Beaver Radar” so we can scan the bank dens to determine how many beaver are in the area.

Haha, if you ever get Johnny Thorpes book of memoirs, theres a short story that starts on page 76. He quit trying to guess how many beaver could be on a colony after that excursion.

I’ll have to look into that. Sounds like an interesting read.

You can get a pretty good idea of how many beaver are in a house by the size of the house and the size of the feedbed.

And how many years the house has been there.

Correct.
On a registered line it is best to trap each colony in winter every 3rd or 4th year.
That way the entrance run is easy to find (no or very little ice) and you will have 8-12 beaver per colony.On average.

The sets of rules that apply for many colder areas of the country don't mean much here. I have seemed to notice beaver more prone to moving upstream when we flood...which when you think about it makes sense. In my areas there are no lodges, very few dams and no underwater larders.

If you footed a beaver and see no activity it could be a batchlor and he's healing up.

I think the OP mentioned dams and feed beds on a creek.
Not sure if he gets any ice though.

I might add this observation - around here, when water is high they often wont mess with the dam until the water comes down. About the time the water hits the level that the dam was keeping it before the high water event, they will rebuild/repair the dam.

We do get ice but it’s hit or miss. Been unseasonably warm this past week (35-55 degrees). Temps are suppose to be in the teens for the next week, might get a bit of ice but definitely won’t freeze over moving water.

On a washout like you're talking about. I've seen them go downstream and build a smaller dam to hold water and eventually come back to the original dam. This time of year I've seen them leave and go into the river system