@uberbatman Personally I’d stay away from store bought bleach. I used to use it when I was young to clean bones, but they’ll be more brittle and they certainly won’t have that nice polish naturally bleached bones can get. And @syz I kinda doubt ants would be very interested bones that aren’t attached to some sort of flesh.
I definitely had more than my share of animals rotting in the backyard as a kid and I certainly let the ants and maggots do the heavy lifting at the front end, but ultimately they always left a somewhat sinewy pile of bones, fur or feathers. It seems to me that’s the sort of condition @bluejay‘s bones are already in. I can’t speak to times, but at this point, faced with that collection of bones I would probably try this:
1. Get a five gallon bucket and drill a shit ton of holes in the bottom for drainage. If you want to be fancy you could use a big flower pot.
2. Fill it up with dirt, preferably dirt from the ground in all it’s microby goodness. Store bought will be cleaner dirt so people don’t have to worry about getting their plants sick. You’re not worried about plants. You want things to digest all those random bits of organic matter on your bones. It should be noted that some dirt can have a reddish pigment and can stain bones. It won’t damage them, just color them a bit. If you’re concerned about this stay away from reddish dirt.
3. Bury your bones in the pot! Maybe put them in a mesh bag first to make it easier to find them all when you dig them up.
4. At that point I’d just leave the bucket outside and out of the way. Make sure that it will drain as you don’t want to encourage mold or fungus growth. I’d give it three months and then check in on the bones and either give them a quick rinse and scrub with an old tooth brush before proudly adding them to my shelf or rebury them for more pleasing results.
Hope this helps :)