[Bramblecot]

Some of our rams went to the abattoir today and we asked to retain the horns.  What is the best way to preserve them if they are to be used as handles on walking sticks?  The two methods suggested so far are boil them for 10 minutes or bury them in the ground for 6 months .  Advice please.

[TheSmilingSheep]

Hello lovely Bramblecot....

We took a rammy lamb to the abattoir earlier this month.... they said they could take the horns off for us, and boil them in order to remove the 'inside' and then we could use them as we wished....  However, we were subsequently told that it hadn't been possible to keep the horns... We were told it was always subject to the approval of the vet....

Not very sure about this, but if it had gone to plan it seems that the abattoir are able to undertake the 'process' for you....  Let us know if you're more successful than we were!

[Fleecewife]

We put ours up on a roof well away from the house, and leave them for the insects to remove the core.  They do a great job, with no smelly boiling (just a slight whiff of decomp) or forgetting where you buried them - we still have a deer's head somewhere underground.

[Foobar]

I got a set of horns back once, but the vet was "by-passed".  He said strictly speaking they aren't allowed to give them back.  It probably comes under the same category of animal waste as the skins.  Is there a box on the defra form for horns as well as skins?  Maybe you can request permission to get them in the same way.


I rinsed mine and knocked them a bit and the cores came out, but yeah, as FW says, maybe letting the maggots do the work for you is easier if they are long curly horns .

[Bramblecot]

Thanks all.  I now have 3 lovely sets of Shetland ram horns at home, just need to work out what to do with them .