Finding the enterance/exit on a house

[treeroot]

I'm having a hard time finding the enterance/exit on a few beaver houses this year with all this snow. The ice has a few layers to it as well. 2 inches of ice, few inches of water and then thick ice.

The feed pile is totally covered in snow/ice as well. I tried to shovel around looking for it, but its under those layers of ice and water so nothing is poking out.

The drifts around the houses have made it impossible to help as well.

ideas?

[sourdough doug]

Any of the houses that I wanted to do this winter (only a few), I marked before freeze up..Pretty hard to spend much time and money, considering the price of those critters now..But in your case, you may have to cut out sev larger holes and with a long pole, feel where their runs are, leaving the house, on either side of the feed raft.. Fill your plate if you really need them....they won't go anywhere and they can be taken in the spring .. Castors will be full then and today, that's where the only money can be found....As I see it...

[kingrat]

Ya you would be better off just setting some snare poles around the feed pile now. I never bother with winter beavers way to much work for what you get in return. But if you absolutely are gonna that's what I would do.

[HunterDave]

Here’s a little trick that I found useful. It won’t work on all lodges but it does for the ones where the water gets gradually deeper the farther you go from the lodge. Shovel the snow off the ice around the lodge a little ways out from it. Dip the tip of your chain on your saw into the ice at 1’ intervals. Note on the bar when your bar hits water or when it cuts through the ice if there’s flood water. The ice will be thinner where the runs are and you’ll hit water sooner. Cut a couple of blocks of ice out and you’ll see that the underside of the ice is concave where the run is. Using a pole confirm by feeling the bottom. It should be clear of debris in the middle of the run.

It works for me and is the easiest way to find the runs that I know of. Good luck!