sheep horns

[riddlesx]

i got my first sheep on august 19th, a corsican. i cut the skullplate off and its been hanging in the fence behind my shed since. i looked at them today and they stunk pretty horribly i didnt clean any flesh from the skull first, how long does it take to rot them of? should i not boil the horns? just the plate and cores. any tips would be great.

[Evelyn Billington (Superpig)]

What I suggest is for you to submerge the horns in a tub of water and have them come off via the maceration method. This will be a lot quicker, no risk in a predator coming along and running off with it, and there won't be any damage to the horns either. Just check the tub about once a week and see if the horns are starting to loosen up. Depending on how warm it is where you're at and how old the sheep was when it was killed, it could take anywhere from two weeks to several month. The older the animal, the longer it will take for the horns to come off. I would stay away from boiling as this can result in horn and skull damage.

[riddlesx]

so even after a couple weeks of rotting i can stick em in a tub of water?

[Aaron H]

2 weeks of rotting just gets it all started. You can place them in water as Soperpig suggests or put them in double garbage bags and sweat them. Either way the tissue binding the covers to the cores will rot away and the covers will slip off. What is that strange odor? Enjoy, Aaron H.

[bill@hogheaven]

Put the horns in a container you can seal even if only to tape a trash bag over the top. add an inch of water  arrange the horns so they ARE NOT IN THE WATER. That can cause damage. In a week or two they should slip right off .