How many muskrats per hut?

I got sets out on a pond right now. Has one small hut and one big one. There is another pond close by with a couple more huts. How many rats should I take before moving to the other ponds. I don't want to clean it out. Leave some for next year.

Some will tel you trap as many as you can but I was always told to take 3 per big hut and add 1 per small hut and it has worked well for me for the last 50 years

Sounds like your dealing with poor rat habitat to begins with so you might as well trap them all and move on.

Like any other animal, if the habitat is good more will move in before next year.

Gang set for three checks then move on.

1/3 of a rat per hut here it seems.

This exactly. Although it seems there has been a population decline in the last few years.

Catch em while you got them! Had 100's of huts in 2012 and after a severe drought it took until this year to get them back. Population is more dependent on weather than trapping pressure.

I don't know about huts, but last year I found a hot spot in a pond where there was a 6 foot section of shoreline with a handful of den entrances and I got 11 rats in that 6 foot section of bank. I haven't been back this year yet to see what might still be there.

I figure three per hut......

Here early season before winter kill in good marsh about 10 per house. Invariably some of the houses will freeze out due to being in too shallow of water. By breakup I would say the population is down to only a couple survivors per house normally.

Weird this year. I have one place with two big huts. I set up all the runs, caught on big rat, then nothing. Some deal at another spot. Something is killing 'em and it ain't me.

Maybe the early trappers ahead of you. I see this a lot in my area. These would be the same guys that are complain about the price there getting for their rats, and no offers on their small rats. If only they would wait a month or two... they would surely see the difference! But that idea is a hard sell to some trappers.😯

No, pretty sure there are no trappers hitting these spots. I have not even seen anyone trapping on public land, and these are private.

How is your otter population in those areas? Otter can be tough on rats, especially if there is ice cover on those ponds and not much of a fish population to feed on.

Could be mink too.

I didn't know otter take rats.