Corn Hungry Beavers

Beavers dug/digging channels from dammed up creek out into cornfield. Corncobs, stalks, and husk all over main dam area and floating in water. Unpressured colony here, but access to main dam is not easy.

Farmer left about 20 yd swath of corn standing..about stuck combine a month ago. Beavers liked that.

Don't see this too often down here.

Easy snaring in these channels.

Fun stuff

One year at a buddies place we were trappimg beavers on a narrow but deep drainage ditch. The beavers had dug tunnels out into the corn field to feast on the easy pickings. Some of the tunnel were 40 yards long. First and only time I have seen it.

280s and 330s shine in those tunnels

I do like snaring Beaver!

Me too. Easy peasy!

Gonna grab the beavs that are working these channels then float some gear out to main dam and finish em off at a dam break with footholds.

There's a couple 330s in those channels tonight, along with snares.

Lots of corn loving Beavs around here. Around half of them don't make a feed bed. They pack bank holes with corn b4 ice up.

watching take some pic, on how you set up them snares ,

Will do...

Swamp Wolf help me out here, why will beaver dig a trench out to where a food source is. Looks like it would be easier to just walk over to the corn field and get their stuff? Safety? They get out of the water plenty to nibble on a river willow tree.

The beavers around here just scoop out a underwater den access hole in the mud bank of the river or creek. And then drag up willow tips up close to the hole.

Here they usually do just walk over.

I'm not sure why they're doing that for corn and corn stalks. Other places they would rather float what they cut down..larger trees and shrubs.

Also, may have something to do with ease of movement...fat rascals can swim easier than they can waddle on land. They've got nothing but time...busy beavers...

Around here the creeks and local river have steep dirt banks due to the often high water in the spring. The beaver have slides up to the top where the corn is. They cut the stalks off leaving a big perfect circle in the corn. Drag the stalks down the bank one at a time. You see scattered stalks minus the corn on the bank at waters edge. Many of them floating downstream.

They make crop circles along the river and ditches here too. I have seen dams in a ditch made of nothing but cornstalks and mud. Do not step on one of those dams in a muck bottom ditch around here.

coolest/ best lesson can be learned from a drained swamp that is less then 10 years old.

Last time i had a spot like that a guy had a pvc corn feeder strapped to side of a tree, beaver's had a ditch coming to it like that, set 5 330's in it and had 5 beaver the next day, never caught another one, guess was the whole bunch at one whack, if only every spot was that easy.

I have seen the perfect semi-circles in corn and soybeans that were still being cut after the beans were dry. Wet trails leading to the beans every morning until I cleaned the beaver out. I have also found dams on creeks beside corn fields that were almost all corn stalks.

And waterfowl impoundments with corn here are beaver magnets. They will plug up the outflow with corn stalks a lot earlier than the owners of the impoundments want to flood the corn.

Makes me wish I had set it heavier...

4 days at the cornfield and only one kit beaver. No fresh sign since day I set it.


Have no idea why the beavers put the brakes on at that cornfield..but the battle isn't over yet. This is a pay job, so it continues. Just completed a seperate job today, and can now focus on this colony.

I'm dreading wading that main dam...but gonna try tommorrow. Can't walk the downstream side..brush is impenetrable. Hopefully water and mud is not over waist deep on high side so I can get further out for adequate dam break set(s). Dam is about 400 plus yards long across flooded drainage. Looks to be a few locations for submerged 330s due to downed trees.

Sounds like you need a canoe. I guess the bobcats ate all the corn eating beavers, corned beaver hash must be their favorite, lol.

I've been focusing on finishing the other job a few miles away I had going. Never completed setting this one like it needs to be. Gonna try tommorrow. A canoe would work here, but field too wet to drive truck close. Using SxS to get around wet field.

I've waded to end of main dam. I think I can float gear in using Jet Sled..if water ain’t over my chest waders.

Can drag a canoe behind the s x s

Yeah...that's last resort..if I can't get traps where they need to be. Hauling the SxS and canoe...I'll look like the Clampets going down highway.

That happens to me also, where they are cutting corn and then just stop for whatever reason. Several times I have found that they move to a different spot to cut the corn, like they cut a little at one spot a few nights then move to another spot for a few nights. I do get them cutting corn, usually with snares in the trails near the water exits. But corn does not usually seem to be as good of a location as I think it will be when see it, and most of the time I only get one or rarely two at a corn cutting location and then it stops. It is common to find them using corn for food and dam building around here, and I set it up when activity is fresh, but I don’t expect a lot of catches when I do.

Interesting info loosanarrow. I have only seen areas like this 2 or 3 times. This is 1st time to trap this situation. It sure looked promising, but I should've known better. Rarely do I have an easy beaver removal job. But, at least there was a frost this morning here...so all is good

That corn field looks like it's from last year.
Doubt there's any corn left .

There is a lot of corn left (I actually picked a 5gal bucket off the standing stalks).

Beavers backed water into field last summer. Edges of field drowned. A bit further out from woodline/flooded edge the corn made, but tractors/combine couldn't stand up within 15 or 20 yds of edge...so corn was left standing (can't see that in my pic angle), but lots of corn there...but most is on the ground now.

Well....only 1 young beaver caught at cornfield site. Surprised as it appeared an entire colony was there. Went several days with zero activity. Company had to breach (with excavator) the most obvious dam last week as farmer that rents field wanted water gone. I had to pull traps. Went back a couple days ago and hacked and cut my way downstream as water release seemed to be too slow...figured there was another dam....yep. Have caught 2 more there. Catch rate is slower than I expected. Big sow beaver today..and that's always good to get her. Three so far, but I'm sure there are more....

BTW, she is the 1st beaver I've caught using the Black Widow stands...worked perfectly. Stand was still in place...beaver at bottom of drowner rod...MB750....at dam break. They've been letting water pour thru 2 breaks for 3 days with no effort to stop it...until last night.

Black Widow stand?

photo?

Jeff Dunlap sells em.

That's crazy! But, about 20 years ago, there was a farmer who had a corn field next to a creek that had beaver living in it. He said they were dragging his corn into the creek.
I went over to check it out. The beaver had a brushy feed pile with corn shocks mixed in. They had 2 runways. 3 days in a row, I had a beaver in each runway with a 330. I caught 10 in all. The other 4 I caught in the creek itself.

So, you're thinking these strange crop circles are being made by beaver???? Just kidding!

I must have hit this area as beavers were changing up food sources or something. There are corn cobs floating all over this now mostly-drained creek bottom.

Plus, there may have been some beaver shooting occurring on other side/property side of this drainage...there is a field and camp house built right at water's edge over there.

I was sure hoping this would be an easy removal job.

I should've known better....none are ever easy and all are different, no matter how similar they appear at 1st look.

Sure did look like a cherry pickin type job to start with. Goes to show .. ya never can tell.
Vert interesting post, thanks.

Just got done eliminating pond beavers that tore up the corn around it ,

Another one today at same break in dam....with 750 in a Blk Widow support. Catches coming slower than I'd like as I'd like to finish this one b4 Christmas. Got several more I need to get to that involve more driving time.

4 total: 1 male kit, 1 female yearling, 1 female 2 yr old (today), & 1 brood female. I need the adult male and there is likely other younger beaver there.

Water is almost gone at upstream dam that was breached by excavator last week. Dropped about a foot or so at next dam where lodge is. Seven 330s and two 750s on site.

Had a pretty 3x bright, silver coon is a partially submerged 330 today. I skint him...don't really know why.