Novice Questions on Prepping Castor for Lures

Hey y’all. I’m new to the forums and still learning the basics of trapping. I have yet to trap an animal. I’m a hunter and I’m currently working on thinning some nuisance beavers for a relative. So far I’ve killed a couple by hunting them, but some buddies suggested that I try trapping. So I’ve purchased a few traps and I’m learning how to create sets.

I came this forum to learn to make my own castor lure. I’ve taken the castors from both. One I froze, the other I pinned to a piece of cardboard and placed in my garage. I really didn’t know there was much more to it before reading around these forums. Now I think I’ve ruined the ones in the garage. It’s pretty humid in my region this time of year. They look like they may rot, but I really don’t know how they should be looking after a day. I pinned them up yesterday morning after hearing someone on YouTube talking about hanging his on a wall in his shed. So I began searching these forums, but found it difficult to pinpoint basic information (using the search function) on curing castors. People seem to discuss what to do with them after they’re dried. If someone could point me in the right direction to information on properly drying castors I would greatly appreciate it.

I’m no expert, and not sure if you saw this post but it seems to have some good info:
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/7764377/Searchpage/1/Main/556474/Words/%2BHandling+%2Bcastors/Search/true/re-beaver-castor-handle-tips-for-selling#Post7764377

Here's how I remove and handle my castors - https://trapperman.com/trapperman/beaver_castor_removal.html

@beezmador and @Paul Dobbins Thank you both.I read both posts. I still have plenty to learn. Both times I cut the castors incorrectly. The first time I cut them out individually. This time I cut them a little lower than I should have, but at least they're still attached. I'm not quite sure how to upload photos here just yet. The second set are noticeably larger than the first. I believe the first was a juvenile male. The recent one was an older female weighing just shy of 43lbs with chunks missing out of her tail (my guess is that she escaped a coyote attack in the past). I wouldn't have expected to see a female with such large castor sacs.

Beavers are very territorial, and fight inflicting injuries on each other. The cut up tails are usually one of the tell-tale signs that the beaver has been fighting. This is not unusual, and in my opinion, not something a coyote did.

@Paul Dobbins I was aware that males are territorial, but I hadn’t thought about female beavers fighting other beavers. I did a brief Youtube search for beaver fights and saw one clash that looked like a wrestling match. Some seem to fight off predators pretty aggressively. Thanks for that bit of information. Are females attracted to castor mound sets at all? I’m wondering if I used castor lure prepared from another female beaver’s castors, would it attract a female beaver’s attention out of defense of her territory or her mate?

Castor lures will attract females as well as males. In my lures, I use the castors from both sexes mixed together.

Forgot about that old post...great info and pics!

I never paid attention to the sex of the beaver I used castor from and never noticed any predominance of one sex at castor sets. You can also use castor fresh to make sets if you are wanting to make some castor mound sets immediately.

Also save the oil sacs when you remove the castors.

Saw a lure formula that said to grind your castors with a little glycerin and set in sun three months. I did some like that last year and it might have gotten a little richer. Is that the thinking behind it? I have several pints I’m debating setting next to my BTO jars through the heat of summer.

I think I ruined the castors that I pinned to the cardboard in the garage on the morning of May 27th. I took them down today and placed them in a ziplock to freeze them. Before I put them in the freezer I noticed a couple of small maggots fell from the top of the castors where they are connected (where I stick the push pin through). I cut this part too low and the castors were partially cut open on the top when I took them a week and a half ago. Did I let them hang to dry too long? I’m thinking that I should I toss them out. Anyone have this happen? For those that have experienced this, what did you do?

Never heard of maggots on castors. As far as hanging them too long, you might have dried them drier than you wanted for your purposes, or drier than is ideal for selling them, but you can't really ruin castor by drying it too long. Some people will dry it bone dry and then crush and powder it for some formulations. I personally don't care to work with barkstone (dried, hard, castors) for making beaver lure, but no way did you ruin it so that you need to toss it out by drying too long.

Well mine had some. Here’s how they looked before tossing them.

Wet castors will draw flies that will lay eggs on them. I've had that happen before, but I got to them in the egg stage before there were maggots. When I dry my castors in the summer heat, I prefer to lay them flat on some quarter inch mesh and put a fan on them. As soon as the exterior gets dry, they are safe from maggots. When they're hung over a wire and where each side touched below the wire, they would not dry where touching and invited flies to lay eggs.

Paul has it right. I have the same experience and dry as he does. I watch mine in the summer. I lay a large door screen over a couple sawhorses and turn them every now and then till they are dry to my preference. I dry my fish the same way. Then the flies won't lay on them. They will sponge the moisture off of them, but the odor doesn't promote them to lay their eggs. Once the moisture is reduced and the odor is diminished, they have little interest.

@Paul Dobbins Thank you for the explanation. I hadn’t even considered maggots a possibility on castors. I should’ve known better.