But what do I do in the meantime?

just be patient and let it dry out

Leave the borax on the skin and meat part. Read my previous post except replace the salt I suggested and use the borax. It will be fine. dont panic, No bugs will eat the borax. It will dry out. No one has given you bad advise in this post. It will be fine... Patience is good...

just lay it in a dry place where the pets don't get at it.a cat or dog will do a job on beards.

it will be fine if you do nothing to it as long as you only see white on the end(no read meat or skin,and fat).
I have some that are 30 years old,that I did nothing to except cut off from skin.

now that you got it ,lay it to the side and go after the next one. good luck.

Put it in a safe place....check it in about a week...change the borax if necessary......

And sit down and enjoy a beer.

For safe keeping, I wrapped the meaty end of mine (covered in borax) in aluminum foil. It took it a little over a week to dry out. Congrats and let us know how it turns out.
-- B

Another tip is to put it where mice cant get at it. They will chew a beard up to make nest with it.

Thanks alot for all the comments!

Just to add to this, i have killed some with left and right turns in the beardsI like to straighten them out when drying. I take a board, usually the same one my fan is drying on and wet the beard where the bendis and try and straighten it out a bit by bending in the opposite direction. Then laying it on the board and using several cut strips of poster board paper stapled over it to hold it flat till it dries out with borax of coarse.SPURS--- i like to cut the legs 1/2" above and below the spur. Then take a piece of wire and push out the bone and yellow junk[:'(]Then pack some borax in them and let dry. Hope this helps.

Mine was only a 1/4 inch spurs, so I probably won't be keeping those.