Real time report Beav, that great

Just placed the hide out in front of the shed. It's 60 degrees and a west wind. I think if I would have had a fan on it all night it would have been board certified. LOL. But it's pretty dry right now but I did have a fat spot that I will take of today.
Another thing I do is keep the butt end up for several days because it takes longer for that end to dry. The nose end doesn't have any fat or gristle on it, so it dries faster.

Thanks for the real time reports Beav. And thanks to everyone else that replied. Everything will be well fleshed before I get home.Sounds like I should be OK to get them all boarded by April 3 and over to Brian for shipment by April 8.

The better scraped they are, the faster they will dry. I don't remove ears, and they are the last thing to dry on a well scraped beaver. They are still soft when I take one off the board (they dry faster on hoops, because the ears are completely exposed to air). If I had room on the boards (didn't need them for more beaver) you can take them off and then tack them back on fur out with about four nails to let the fan blow on the ears, but if it is well fleshed and the rest of it is dry, the ears will dry on their own as long as they can get some air.

Any reason in particular why you leave the ears on? I've always taken the ears off once I started doing big numbers of beaver, but from time to time I've wondered if that hurts me any with the crafters.

That's the way I've always done it? No, no particular reason, just how my dad and grandpa always did it, so it's the way I've always done it. It might hurt you with crafters, but I suspect very few of your beaver in larger lots go to crafters.

I try not to make my lots too big on these sales. I figure if you're making a beaver blanket you probably want 20-30 beaver.

Carl, I found that at my local auction which has many crafters it's best to leave the whole face. I only cut the lips off.
Ive only cut the ears out one year on about 30 beaver and was told by a friend (a crafter) that he didn't bid on them because of the ears and face trim job. That was one less guy bidding on my furs and I took notice. If I sold strictly to an auction house I'd have to reassess that

Ears on for tourist trade. Just think if those ears rotted on your hatters. The end of the world.