Drying tips?

This is my first year putting up fur. I put 16 coons on boards with wedges today. What are some tips for drying, storing, knowing when I can remove them from the boards, and anything I need to do to them before time to remove them. I have them in my fur shed at about 62 degrees with a fan and as little sunlight as possible. Thanks in advance and tight chains.

Fur Drying
The recommended condition for drying pelts is 50-60F with good air circulation, but not directly on the pelts.
When the bodies of fur out species are dry, usually within 24 hours, turn them fur out even if the head area lips and ear butts may be damp. They will generally dry with little if any serious warping as long as you have reasonable drying conditions of low humidity and temperature.
Leave fur out pelts on the board 3-4 days after turning pelt fur out. Taking a hide off the board too soon is worse than leaving it on too long. It will wrinkle and you get excessive shrinkage, thus losing money on size. Time to turn a fur out pelt depends upon the humidity, temperature and air circulation in your shop.

To facilitate drying split the front legs of wolf, coyote, fox, and lynx up to the elbow. Then use either a squirrel or marten board, which ever is appropriate, to tack them open to dry. For fisher and marten use a thick cardboard to tack them out on.

Rats are graded by feel and weight thus you want those rats hydrated so they don't get that nasty crinkly sound when they are graded. Take them off the board when the nose and lips are dry. Then, store rat pelts (squirrels & weasels also) in a cardboard box and keep them cool.

I like sprinkling some sawdust on raccoon pelts to help soak up some of the grease then hang them up but the nose after removing them from the stretcher or put them into a garbage bag keep them separate from other pelts .

The nose area is usually the last spot to dry. If the nose is dried completely, the rest of the pelt probably is too.

No matter how clean you scraped them, coon will sweat grease as the pelts dry. Use old rags or newspaper or so mething disposable to keep the grease wiped off.

Be sure you split the tail and tack it open to dry. Nothing worse than a rotten smelly raccoon tail.

The nose Is the last thing to dry ????

That has been my experience. Of course, I’m sure you have had a different experience.

I will agree with you on one thing. Pelts like raccoon should be dried nose hanging down, to keep the grease from getting in the skirt. At least that is what you have said in the past.......

My experience has been that the nose and face dry first, The reason being that there isn't any meat or fat in that area. It's the same reason that the face and feet are the first things to freezer burn when furs are stored incorrectly for long periods of time.
At our fur school The DNR stores un skinned critters for lengthy periods and the first thing to freezer burn Is the head and feet.
Same with working with fur out critters. After they have been fleshed and placed skin out for a day or less on the board the driest part of the animal Is the face when It comes time to turn that hide.
On fur In boarded fur the face and nose Is always first to dry.

I put up fur professionally for NAFA for many years. We would skin 100 or so critters then we would roll up those hides and cover them with a tarp till we could start fleshing the next day. If we didn't do that the noses and faces would start to dry.

Now when talking about ears that's a different story since you have cartilage to deal with and If It's not removed drying time increases.

Great info guys. So what is the best method for knowing when fur is ready to remove from the boards? When I put coons on a fur hanger will I need to put something between each one of them since they will continue to sweat?

Generally when the lips are dry it's safe to remove the pelt from the board. All species placed on a fur hanger system should be spaced an inch or so apart to allow air circulation.

Thanks guys I'll update how things are going later on. So far I have 25 coons and a rat on boards. I'll be hitting the beaver and rats around Christmas. I hoping to start catching coyotes soon as deer season will be ending and they will be hungry again without all the gut piles around.

i think they should make a gut pile lure ,around here if you get a dear,the gut pile is gone in two days.

Tomcat,I thought when the lips were dry it was time for another cold one?

Yup, that also.