Y'all recommend macerating, or rotting in water your skulls instead of boiling. What do you do in cold weather, I can't have them in the house (mom will killme dead!), and the garage has no heat. I tried it with a deer last fall and it never got clean until summer, and it waS STAINED brown from the rotting stuff?
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Yes, Moms are funny about stuff like that.
Maceration stinks to me (pun intended) no matter what time of year. If maceration was the only way I wouldn't do skulls, I don't really like to do them period, but I get roped into it every year. Just boil or steam it and be done with it. I've been boiling them for thirty years and have never had a problem. Just don't over do it.
After the meat seems pretty easy to come off take it to your local car wash and use the pressure washer to blow all the meat off. You may have to tie it to something heavy to control it. I use a concrete block.
To clean the brain cavity just poke the nozzle into the hole at the base of the skull and pull the trigger. YUCK! YOU BETTER BE STANDING OFF TO THE SIDE.
use a metal pot and stick a heater from a fish tank in it. You can regulate the heat with the knob on the top of the heater. keep an eye on it though because it will evaporate quickly and if it does too much the heater will break. You can plug it into your house and run a long extension cord so it will not stink too close to the house. This will take a long while.
Joe
Just use a tight fitting lid ona plastic pail that has one of those lil rubber gasklets in it. No smell will get out. Keep it under yer bed if ya want. When it coes time to do water changes, bring new water and yer macerated skull outside with you and do it out there. Put new water in it and bring it back indoors.
If it took from fall to summer you did something wrong, as macerating something easy like a deer skull will only take 3 weeks in warmish weather, less in summery temperatures. I have an old fridge that I have the cold cranked up in and I am macerating a moose leg in that with NO WATER. Even in just above freezing temps it's macerating in it's own juices just fine.
Hope that helps =)
I have an old aquarium that I use. I put a submersible aquarium heater in it. Works like a charm, usually 2-3 weeks. Just don't let the heater touch the skull, it will burn it and leave a black spot (luckily it bleached out, that time). BP
I found the metal to stain the skulls blackish. Use plastic bucket or an old watertight aquarium with a heater in it like Becky said.
Bill , I have always boiled my skulls . like Ron does . i have been boiling for almost as long as him also ( 28 years ). As he stated also,
have to be careful not to over do it ! My first attempt yealded me the reward of little skull fragments and no skull ! ( lol )
Ron , i love the carwash method you mentioned ! i deffinatley will
be trying that out this year ! Oh , almost forgot , do your boiling outside ! Even boiling can stink ! Not sure , but doing that inside in the old days may have been part cause of my first divorce ! lol
Good luck to all with your projects !
Raven, the skull kept freezing solid in the water. I used a tote with no lid, and it kept freezing, then would only melt a little if it warmed up. Thats why it tokk so darn long I think!
Thanks ya'll for the help, I'll try it again.