Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Beaver dam removal

Back to my newest baby, the 20 acre lake in Bush.
Just got my first chance to walk the lake yesterday.
I knew there was a beaver damn and that the lake was flooding, but I had no idea just how much.
There is about a 3 foot damn in the overflow of this lake, and it has flooded onto the neighbors property (as best as I can tell from the 2 survey markers I could find, new line survey is in the works).
Now when the damn breaks the overflow will travel about 200 yards into the Big Muddy River, a tributary of the Ole Mississippi, so no real danger of damage, just more erosion to the overflow channel.
I know beaver damns are a Bad Thing(tm), and this one just proves it.
The Beavers will be hunted out, but it might take some time (absentee land owner and it's my busy season right now).
How does one go about removing a damn that is holding back at least 40-60 acre feet of water?
Very carefully is my guess.
The channel that is damned up is only about 10 feet wide if that, so the velocity of exiting water will be tremendous.
Even though I am planning on removing only a small portion at a time and letting the lake drain, I am afraid of collapse while working near the damn.
Meaning I am not going to stand on top ot the damn while swinging an ax or pick, because it the damn let goes I may just get a ride all the way out to the Mississippi with no boat, forget the paddle.
What I really want it to just make a small channel in the middle of the damn on the top to start letting the overflow out, slowly draining the
This will get plugged back up quickly by the beavers, but this is where the hunting will come in, we already have a blind within shooting distance covering the deer highways that go around the lake. If I make it out there tomorrow I may move the blind a little closer and clean up some shooting lanes.

Matt Wehland

Well I hate to reply to myself but I just got off the phone with the owner, Paul.
Boy do I feel dumb, while talking he mentioned calling the DNR and asking about the problem and having to lower the water in the lake.
Duh. Siphon time.
I really hate that I was going about the problem in the wrong order.
Lower the water level and then work on the damn.
The situation is perfect for a siphon, really only need about a 20 foot tube if that.
Ok so how do I go about beaver proofing a couple of siphons?
I'm sure that any siphon left unattended will be chewed through instantly, making it stop running.
Even one of hard PVC won't last more than a couple of minutes of chewing.
All the questions seem to come back to standing by with the 12 guage for a couple of days and eliminating the beavers.

Matt

Most of us have found that varmit proofing anything is tough. If the landowner has an aversion to harming the beavers, just siphon during the day and hang around. They won't come out if you are there and moving around. A siphon moves a lot of water in a hurry.

Matt - On the Beaver hunt, mine usually came out just before dusk.

Gator

Matt. Last yr my sportsmans' club had a beaver problem,too. After a week of us trying to scope & shoot them,we realized ours were nocturnal. Called in a trapper who removed 2 beavers in less than a day or two.One was almost sixty lbs. Traps work 24 hrs a day.

Dave, there is no aversion to hurting the beaver, either a crossbow bolt or some lead poisoning is in store for these critters, the problem is that the owner lives 300 miles away and I work for my self and this is my busy season, adn it's over an hour round trip for me. As soon as Christmas rolls around I plan on spending some quality time out there fishing and hunting.
Like I told Paul it's just another hunting opportunity, don't get your deer during the day, move on over to the damn at night.
I really want to get over there tomorrow and get a siphon running and then try some beaver hunting at dusk. I still haven't been on the land at dawn/dusk (well dusk just once, saw about 12-14 ducks come in and land and then listened to and saw 2 geese fly down the flooded Big Muddy, honking like mad, just about brought a tear to my eyes, it's what life should be about) and those are my favorite times for obvious reasons.
I am adding a good rechargable spotlight or two to the wishlist. Set up by the damn with the siphons running to attract them and then let them have it when they arrive. If we could do this every day I'm sure we'd get the problem solved. The problem is time.
If hunting them doesn't work then we will contact a trapper, but I don't want someone else to have all the fun.

Matt I have for now defeated the beavers but it was very hard and took lots of time after dark in a boat. You will probably get one easy shot - make it count. After that they will be hard to get a shot at unless you are going to use a night vision scope. The siphon should be ok they have not chewed ours. They will try to stop the siphon up and may succeed. They broke the back-flow preventer on one of ours by cramming sticks into it.

No. 4 buckshot fired at a low angle to the water from 30-40 yards out of a boat at the swimming beaver's head works. A few of the pellets will hit and it will start thrashing around. Then you can close the gap and finish the job. You can see the beaver swimming at dusk (or later) and get a shot from 30-40 yards well after its to dark for a scope or rifle. The blind method did not work for me as they avoided it after the first shot until it was way to dark to see. From the blind you can't turn on a light and get a shot off in time unless the thing is well up on the bank. It works better from a quiet boat. Unless you use a headlight (on your head) you will not be able to see the sights to shoot. Oh one last tip - if you kill one and can retrieve it then put it about 2 ft up on the bank and leave it - the others will get the message.

A trapper (or learn how to trap) is much easier.

Get your self a couple Conibear 330 traps. They kill almost instantly and can be set on land or water. A Water is the best and it keeps most other critters from getting in the trap. I have caught a few turtles (bonus for a pond owner)and once I even caught a 6 lb bass.

It's really easy to trap beavers. No sence in paying some to do it, sounds like you'd enjoy the activity. Take a couple traps, set them, take the easy first beaver shot with your rifle that evening and let the springs do the work from there.

Find the fresh slides where they are going in and out of the water and set them where the top of the square is right at the water surface. A few sticks stuck in the mud on either side of the trap will help direct them through the trap. In the shallow water you can see where they will cut channels. These make great set opportunities as well. There will probably be a mating pair and possibly a couple youngsters you'll have to deal with depending on how long they've been resident. Once you take out a couple beavers the damm is yours to do with as you will.

Dam removal is actually kind of fun and there is no real danger of the "levvy breaking" unless you plan on dynamiting. The dam was built up a fraction of an inch at a time with water behind in and can be removed little by little the same way. I have removed several by hand and have never had a problem. It was built with material that a 60 lb rodent can handle so it's about position not brute strength. Beaver dams don't cave and collapse like earthen dams. You can cut a section and the surrounding sections will hold Use the hrdro force to help remove the dirt and debris. Send it down river to the gulf. If you drain first them You have to remove everything and clean up the mess by hand. A backhoe is handy but not required. If it's only 10' wide you don't have an insurmountable problem. The worst part will be waiting for the water to drop so you can do some more removal. I'm guessing you could have it out in a day, maybe two.

Here's an idea I had that might work for you. It could be made from steel mill pipe and welded together. I used to use this pipe for grain leg downspouts. It has about an 1/8" wall, it's galvanized and pretty cheap. Commonly available in 4,6, 8,10,and 12" dia. It would also require 2 flange rings, 2 cover plates, 1 clamp band, 2 gaskets and a little mig or stick welding. Use the clamp band with a coverplate and gasket at the bottom. Fill the down tube with water. Seal off the top hole with a bolted cover plate and gasket then release the bottom clamp band. I haven't tried it but seems like it would work and be pretty hard on beaver teeth if they try to chew through it.

We keep a couple of 330 Conibear traps hanging in the garage just for beaver problems at the pond.

Thanks for the ideas on the siphon, but I got out there Sunday and I've got to agree with ArkansasElkHunter, taking the damn down was really easy. I went out there yesterday for a couple of hours and forgot the pipe I was going to use for a test siphon. I wasn't planning on doing much besides having a fire and some beer so I didn't even bring any tools other than a flashlight and the 12 guage.
After getting the fire started I wandered down to the damn. Started by removing loose sitcks from the back of the damn. Then I climbed on top and checked it out. Next thing I knew I was using a stick from the damn to start digging through the damn. I'd use the stick to poke down through a weak spot, remove all the loose leaves and sticks and then dig a trench in the clay, letting the water start to run through. Removed larger sticks and rocks by hand. Rinse, lather, repeat. Before I knew it I had a trench 8-10 inches deep and most of the damn down at least several inches all the way across. Man that water was flowing, it was wonderful.
Next time I will bring a shovel, and some better gloves and waders would be nice. Did I mention that I had to break ice to get the front part of the damn out? Oh well it was real fun.
I did learn some things. For some reason I expected the damn to be much harder to pull apart, it was real easy, especially with letting the water do the work. Dig a trench to get the water started and then stir up some clay and let it wash away, before you know it it's time to remove some move sticks and rocks and go deeper. Also I thought that what I saw from the back side was the damn, but it looks like the damn is mostly in front, tons of clay in front, I don't even want to guess how many cubics yards. What I could see from the back of the damn was mostly rip-rap to keep the damn from washing out from behind and it seems to work real will, even with all the water I had running over it.
Even 20 acres of water can drain real fast, I had at least a 1/2" drop in a couple of hours, maybe even more. The ground was frozen so I couldn't get a good marker driven in, but I did set a bottle at the starting water level and did get a stick driven in at water level in another part of the lake. I can't wait to get back out there and check it out, hopefully before this weekend.
The timing is good as we as supposed to have rain tonight and tomorrow.
I can't wait to get back out there and work on this thing some more.
Oh yeah I have pretty much given up on the hunting idea, these beavers are doing too much damage. As I walked the property some more all I saw was more and more beaver damage. It seems like they were pretty satisfied with the lake and are starting on damning up every creek and drainage going. And dropping the small trees and debarking the large trees to kill them in the process.
These things have to go.
I've read about trapping before, I guess I will have to read up some more. The only problem is that I will not be out there every day to run them, but since I'm not trapping for the pelts and I'm not Humane trapping I guess it doesn't matter if the dead beaver sits for a few days.
How territorial are beavers?
Could I have more than one family out here, especially given that I have the river running there?
If there is only one family, then they have been busier than.... uhh I hate to say it...
Beavers.
Ok I'm going to go stand in the corner now.
I also found the front half of a 4 point buck, the rest had been eaten by critters. Probably wounded during firearms season, it wasn't too rotted, but had been eaten on real good. It was getting dark, but I will go back and get the antlers and make a set of rattlers for Paul. I think it will make a nice gift. He's never hunted before he bought the place, he's been out a couple of times but hasn't seen anything yet, except for a neighbor trespassing with his dogs. I offered to try a drive for him last time, but it was 10-15 degrees and 30 mph wind and as he said 'I'm just not that hard core yet'.
It would have been perfect since the river was up and made the funnel between the river and pond that much smaller. This is also a beautiful piece of cover adjacent to the farm fields, which I think were planted in soy beans this year.
So I just walked through to get a feel for next time, and I did kick up a couple of deer, didn't get a good look at them, just their tails, I was in a hurry to get home so I was doing a 'city' walk around the pond, not a real 'woods' walk.
I do have a plan for next time, although one more person would make it perfect, I think I will have a second blind set up closer to the river, push from the pond to the river and send the deer up across the RR bed in front of the blind. At least that is my plan. Once they get caught near the river they start to panic, which will be useful. I was walking down the old RR bed the other day and pushing one along parallel to the road. It kept going until it reached the river then panicked, making more racket than a locomotive pushing though the woods trying to get away from me. And Paul had thought my idea of a drive wouldn't work. Well he's learning.

Matt

Oh yeah one more thing, Paul has No Trespassing signs to put up, but is there a source for 'Warning traps in use' signs?
I think I read the idea here, it makes it much easier to talk to the trespassing neighbor about not running his dogs out here any more. And there are tons of fresh dog tracks out there.

Matt

Ryan:

Nice siphon diagram. We've had lots of siphon discussion here with lots of info on them, but this is the first time I've been able to look at it in my mind and see how to put one together at my pond and make it work for me. Thanks.

Matt, Yea its pretty captivating work and sounds like you have already figured it out. make the water do the work. widen your hole all the way across. Just work back and forth. start on the opposite side and work towards the other. Anything the water does not remove, you have too. Don't let too much stick up because without water, it's just plain hard work

Trapping beavers is really easy like I said. If you have them in all the creeks and have already spotted were they are cutting now to feed you'll have no problem trapping them. Set your traps in the water where they won't freeze up in an obvious pathway. Use those pointed, de-barked beaver sticks to build a picket fence on either side of the trap. Just stick them in the mud and leave some sticking up for the beavers to see and they will swim between them right through the trap. Sometimes I lay one across the top og the trap to make them duck their head. Be sure and stake the traps down so nothing can drag them off. If you arn't saving hides, they'll keep in the water just like your refrigerator so every three or 4 days will be fine. Invest in the trap setter or just make your own. You'll be glad you did. The 330's can be a challenge at times to set and use the safety link but don't forget to unlatch it. All that will make sense when you see the traps.

With a river close by you'll probably have intermitant problems every couple years. There is probably only one family unit on the lake. The juveniles will usually strikout to find their own territory but there might be two groups on the lake. there could be as many as 6 in a single lodge, but usually only one dominant male and female. Walk the lake and look for lodge holes or brush lodges

I lowered my pond by about 2' in about 2 days by simply submerging a 3" air hose in the water, capping one end with my hand and then quickly shoving the other end down the overflow pipe. As I was trying to anchor the intake side the hose latched onto my waders like a leach. Took about 20 or 30lbs of force to get it loose.

thought you folks might like to see what the beavers look like and how big they are

Wow, I've seen them swimming through the water before, mostly at dusk, but would have never guessed that they'd get this big.
So do you tap them for pelts or just damage control?
I've been doing a little reading on trapping them, and if we do it ourselves I would like to try to do something with the pelts.
Why? Because I hate wasting things, even if I have to kill them any way.
Should I even bother?
No, I really have enough to do, no use for them, I'm not out to try to sell them, wouldn't even know where to start, but I would probably try anyway. I have a bad habit of knowing I'm getting in over my head and going out and doing it anyway. Don't think I'm about to change now.
They'd sure look cool hanging in the lodge(currently a shed, but we have dreams).
Thanks for the pics, maybe someday I'll have some pics of my own.
I can't wait to get back out to the lake and see how much they've rebuilt for me to take down again.

Matt

If you don't like wasting things, you may as well eat their meat when you kill them.

Wow, that may be going further than I wanted.
Any idea on how they taste?
Matt

I trapper I used to know once told me that beaver are relly good eating and that they taste like greasy pork.

cliffbrook,

nice picture. you have that "Hey, lookie what I got" look on you face.

I'm not sure how beavers eat (and I'm not going to find out) but seems like we could do something with the fur.

gator

Easiest way to trap beaver is with castor mound sets, I think. Beavers mark their territory with scent from glands around the anus called castor glands. If alien scent appears in their territory it riles them up. Beavers make mounds around a pond that are from 2-3" to 6-8" high and deposit castor scent on them by way of staking claim.
You can buy castor scent commercially at trapping supply sites on the internet. You just make a mound in a convenient place and smear a little scent on it. Place the coniber 330 at the water's edge in front of the mound which itself would be a foot or two back. Make the mound by raking some pond muck and sticks to add to some dirt. You can take a shovel and dig a shallow trough in the pond bottom that leads from the water up to the mound.You can use that dirt to make the mound. The trough will be like a beaver channel and will lead the beaver right into the coniber. You can also stack some brush to each side of the trap so it is inconvenient for the beaver to go around the trap. If you go to Sullivan's trapping supples website or the Trapperman forums they show pictures of these sets and lots of info.
I have regular beaver invasions here in central Oklahoma and have to fend them off from time to time. Sometimes you can't find traveled beaver paths or channels to put traps in, especially when beavers just show up. By the time they create clear cut paths they may have destroyed a lot of trees. Using castor sets you don't have to wait for them to leave sign.

As far as the culinary value of beaver I have had good experience with braising the hind quarters and in fact have some in the fridge right now. I browned the two "hams" in a dutch oven and then removed them. In the same dutch oven I sauteed onion, celery and carrots all diced fine as a classic mirapois. Added 2-3 tbps of paprika, garlic, salt and pepper. After the veggies were softened put the beaver hams back in and added a 50/50 mixture of beef stock and apple cider until the meat was about 2/3 covered. Cooked in a 250 degree oven for 4 hours. Results were tender, moist and really delicious. Something between a chuck roast and thigh meat on a chicken. I highly recommend it. Oh, also I brined it overnight prior to cooking. Google "brining" to find out about that.

Well I got out to the lake today. The beavers hadn't rebuilt the dam much, they filled in the center channel and even the dam back up, but it is still 6"-8" lower than it was before, and the dam is 2"-3" above water level right now.
I suspect that the beavers will work on the dam more after some rains when it starts overflowing again.
Stopped in at Rural King (local farm store) and walked right into a display of traps, 330's were $16.99. Never seen them in the store before.
Paul was down with some friends. As soon as I got there I mentioned that the water was definately down from before the dam deconstruction (You could see 8" of the duck blind was wet but drying out from being flooded, but there is still a couple of feet under water).
Someone mentioned that he wouldn't have removed the dam (this didn't suprise me considering the source). After I explained that the pond was onto the neighbors property (as best I can tell), It was then explained to me that the beavers were 'just building the dam to protect the lake from the river overflowing and flooding out there lodge'.
How can I argue with logic like that.
This persons thinking was just let them dam up and flood the whole property.
Paul was also convinved by 'someone' that taking fish out of the lake was a 'Bad Thing', so it is C&R for now.
I had 15+ jugs ready to go and was looking forward to seeing what else was in the lake, it's only been bass fished so far, with lot's of the same size bass caught from what I've heard. Better not remove those 'breeders'.
So I gave up and went for a walk to see if I could find the dead 4 pointer. No suprise it wasn't there any more.
Oh yeah, beavers.
I did get out in Pauls jon boat after dark when every body went to town. Made it over to the beaver lodge and chased some beavers in the water.
I saw/heard at least 3 beavers (saw 2 at once and heard another one way off). I'd chase them with the boat for a minute until they decided to dive and swim away. I'm pretty sure there were more, from all the big splashing I heard, but definately 3. The ones I saw were small, maybe 20-30 pounds, definately nothing like what cliffbrook posted. I'm guessing that they are the juveniles, I heard what sounded like larger ones, but they stayed further away and I didn't see them.
Seemed like cruising their lodge was a good way so rile them up, they seemd to come alive even from other parts of the lake.
I'm guessing that the big tail splash is a warning call?
If I had only had a second person with a good spotlight and a 12 guage with buck shot (#4 has been recomended) there would have been at least 1 dead beaver, I could get real close to them before they dived.
On my walk I found more trees the beavers are feeding on. So many of the big trees that Paul has are being killed by the beavers, bark eating off part way or all the way around the tree.
They need to go, or there will never be another timber harvest here.
Oh well we shall see what happens.

Matt

Beaver don't care if the river floods or not. They flood the timber because their principle means of transportation is water. They need the water to transport green limbs for storage in their underwater cashe of winter food. They are also vulnerable on land to predators, so the farther the water goes up to the trees, the safer they are.

Tell him not to worry though. As soon as all the trees around the lake are dead and gone, they will move on to somewhere else!

My dads property is along a creek. Every few years the beaver move up the creek looking for new food sources. Kind of like a swarm of locust on a wheat field. The neighbor on the other side of the creek did not want them trapped. He liked to "watch them". He even stold all my traps once. One year they hit him first. Before he knew it, they had cut down or killed most all of his big trees along the creek. Then he called dad and said "we've got to do something about these beavers". Dad told him if he'd buy me some new traps that we'd be glad to trap them out for him. Got 4 brand new 330's out of the deal.