Sorry if this is not taxidermy technically...but I thought someone could help...over the last year I have taken up the habit of finding small animal/birds and experimenting with various ways of decomposing...I collect skulls/bones...in my last home we had a roof where I would stash them.. and beatles native to the area that would clean the carcasses for me beautifully...now where I live I have to worry about other creatures(like rats/cats) and I have no elevated area or land...I recently found a crow...any suggestions?
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You can get the 1/4 inch wire hardware cloth and the cage rings and ring pliers at most hardware stores. I would anchor the cage down, with a cable and stake..You can wire the door shut. Let nature do the work.
You can put it in a bucket and let the water decompose it as well. Or in a large tub with a lid and let the heat disolve, or let the fies have it from a day or two and put it in the tub and let them eat it all. they do a noce job. you will know when there is not any meat left as the smell will go from putrid to a clorax smell as this is the smell of the flies excrement. You them can wash the bones off with a degreaser and then bleach the bones with peroxide. the water method you need to change the water every few days. it really helps.
If you perfer the bettles, get you a old fish tank. remove all the loose meat and skin from the crow, and the guts. let it dry a bit in the sun, and then give it to the bettles. They can do the rest. you may have to wrap the skeleton in panty hose in the sun to dry so the flies will not lay thousands of eggs on it.
That crow might test positive for West Nile. They are first on the list for testing here in NY.