I am curious about the types of, and level of sophistication of fur preperation areas. I do not have a basement, or a garage. I do have a 12' x 16' uninsulated shed. I am concerned with sub 32 degree temps. What is an optimal temp. for drying of pelts? I do not have electricity in shed. Electricity,woodstove and insulation could be installed. I would appreciate some thoughts on what is necessary and/or practical for a beginner. Another option is to market the pelts still on the carcass. What are the pros and cons to this option?

See this is your first post ...Welcome. You will get a wide variety of answers to this one; and that is good.

In a general sense, warm is a good thing in the cold winter months as is adequate lighting. I think if I where you I would look into getting a heat sorce and light into my shed. But you don't have to have either.

As for sub-freezing temps they will slow the dring time. Clearly, once the skins are dry the low temps will be more to your advantage.

I wonder what the ideal set up is. Here, in the desert, things get pretty cold during the night and most often very comfortable by mid day; a 30 to 40 degree diurnal shift. With very little fuel I can keep my shop/shed comfortable wearing only an open vest. My skins dry on the hide side over night (6-8) hours and must be turned before I leave to run my lines. They are completely dry in 3 or 4 days when hung in the far (unheated) end of the shop. Heat is only one factor, relative humidity is equally important; we have none. The other issue that comes to mind relates to the number of stretchers you have/need. You may find it cost effective to invest in more stretchers so that by the time they are all filled the first hides are ready to come off.

I collect my hides on hangers which hold 25 pelts. When filled I move the hangers to an insulated trailer to hang until I go to the buyer. I prefer to have the hides hanging in an airy cold to cool place free from mice etc.

I don't sell in the round. I like working my hides and of course you will get more for them put up.

Hope this helps some.

NINE PINE
I don't think it matters any if your fur shed is unheated as long as you can work in it half comfortably.Some trappers build special drying rooms and fur hanging rooms and all that but thats all to rich for my blood. I have a wood stove in my fur shed but the only time I make a fire in it is when I working in it. i.e skinning, fleshing ,etc. And my furs always dry good. The main thing is to make sure your furs is thawed out good when you go to sell them. You may think they are dried good when in reailty they are actually froze. But like I said I never had any problems, just give your furs PLENTY of time to dry. Furs shouldn't be dried close to a strong heat source anyway! You can use any type of heat source for your fur shed as long as it's safe ( no sloppily jerry-rigged old wood stoves), and it don't take up to much of your working area. I never tried them, but I would imagine a small kerosine heater would make a nice economical way to heat your building.(just be sure its well ventilated) and wouldn't take up much room.
Scott

Good post Wacky, you slipped yours in while I was still writing and you brought up some good points that I completely never thought of.
Lighting is VERY important for skinning even in the daytime if you don't have any or too few windows. An easy and cheap way to run lights is with an extension cord from the house. Unless your shed is 10 miles back in the woods. LOL !
And humidity, here where I am the humidity is very high so the fur does dry real slow. In these kind of conditions exta stetchers are a must if you plan on putting up alot of furs in a short time.
Scott

One thing I like in a shed is a choice of fleshing beams.Mine attach to the wall and fold up when I'm not use'n them.I have a 8" for beavers 6" for other critters.Also I made a 2 1/2 for just mink.I don't use the mink board all that much cause there is little to do on a mink,but it's there if I get a fatty male.

My only addition to the above posts would be that the ideal furshed must carry the wonderful smorgasborg of long-lasting aromas & scents of all them critters that you catch, that send certain signals to the olfactory gland that most non-sportsmen, non-trappers just couldn't begin to understand, you trappers know what I mean, don't you? Its like in late August or early September when you catch a wiff of that roadkill skunk, kinda reminds you the upcoming season is not far away. Yep, to me, the ideal furshed has to have the right smell to it, no doubt about it!!

Later...MM...

Welcome. Looks like you've started a good topic with your very first post. Congratulations!

My advice would be to most distinctly install electricity in your outbuilding. Electric lights are invaluable in a fur shed. I wouldn't necessarily recommend running extension cords. Depending on your abilities, you might just want to wire it up and include a couple of plugs and a few lights. If you do run an extension cord, get a high quality, heavy duty one.

Besides lights, nobody has yet mentioned being able to run a fan in your fur shed if you have electricity. Blowing a fan, and circulating air around the fur shed will greatly enhance the drying time on fur, no matter what the temperature.

Tom hit the nail right on the head when he mentioned heat verses humidity. Furs will dry okay in an unheated fur shed particularly under arid winter conditions. I dried fur in an unheated building for years. But warm temperatures don't necessarily assure drying either. I've run into stretches of 60 and 70 degree weather in the south, where hides were in danger of spoiling before they got dry. The high humidity kept them from drying, and the warm temperatures promoted bacteria growth. The only alternative is to heat them beyond where they already are to drive out the moisture. I've spent many nights in the fur shed, stripped down to my tee-shirt, and still running sweat.

Before I go any farther, I would advise folks to be very cautious using kerosene heaters in their fur shed (or anywhere for that matter), particularly the modern “Kerosun” type heaters. The wick can screw up in these things, choke the flame down, and from there on, they exude a greasy, black kerosene smoke that coats everything like airborne charcoal. Ask my friend Jerry Chillicut. Besides, burning kerosene puts a great deal of moisture into the air, which is not a plus when you're trying to dry fur. Same goes for vent-less gas and propane heaters.

If you're asking what I would do, I'd put in the wood stove. You're in Michigan. That's a fair to middlin' cold place. The wood stove would help you dry fur, but it would also make it comfortable to work there. Mind you this comes from a man who has spent cold days on the trapline and cold nights in the fur shed. I've figured out there's nothing I can do about the temperature outside, but there's nothing in the trappers code book that says I can't be warm at night.

Like running your electricity, the better job you do installing the stove, the safer it will be. You don't want to burn the place down.

Good Luck!

-- Hal

I would like to thank you all for your thoughtful responses to this post. It looks like I will be installing electricity and a wood stove in my shed. This should not be too big an undertaking considering my shed is only 60 feet from my back door. My biggest concern was the temperature and it's effect on the drying process. I had reservations about my ability to maintain a constant temperature 24/7, it is a relief to find out it isn't absolutely necessary. One other point that I never even considered, which should have been obvious, is adequate light to work by. Thanks again!

My shed is only 10 x10 ft, real small . This is what I have to work with, so I make due. I did not have electricity or hesat either. What I did was ran 2 lines from my house electrical box, hard wired them on their own breaker. Ran the wire in conduit across my lawn and have 4 plug ins and enough power for lights and a small electric space heater. I can diconnect the lines in spring and hook them back up in fall. I also insulated my tiny shed and it works out ok.
Freebird

Welcome to the line, well lets see im a first year trapper and all i did was convert my dads old chicken coop in my own fur shed i put in a small stove and just had at it i don't know where you live bu in ny it gets kinda cold so i need a heat source. but the coop is getting a little cramped so im gunna double the size of it this summer so i have more room to move around and it is a good thing to have a warm place to let ur furs dry in. I left a couple muskrat furs in my shed and the never dried til i brought it inside so now since im not out in the house every day i just bring down my pelts down stairs.Lol my mm hate me for it to. Well hope this helps.