How bad is the smell?

Goat milk soap will take the smell off...several washings of it...but it did. LOL.
There were times that Tom (DH) would set at the table and I would give him the look, and he would smell around his arms and such to find where 'it' (the smell) was coming from and either go wash again or change his clothes. Pretty amazing stuff/stink, it is!

What Vicki says is good info for new owners. We started in just that way. No access to bucks close by and no knowlege in heat cycles.
Vicki - it amazes me that you haven't forgotten what its like to be new and give info that is good for where a person is at the time. I appriciate it!
AI is costly so even if a person has nice goats they might be at their spending limit on proper feed and care so the little extra is just over the top for them (having extra for vet care emergencies, too).
We had to keep a buck on the property cause a good or even just clean-as in desease free- mediocre Alpine was many hours away. From our limited experience (and someone already said this) if the buck is kept as far away as possible from the does they don't stink as much but, yes, they stink in rut times. I also agree that different bucks will smell more or less. We do have Alpines and they pretty much only smell in the fall/winter until everyone is bred. But the Pygmy I had a long time ago smelled pretty much all year and worse in the fall/winter. Did you consider swiss breeds (Tracys are awsome) so you don't have the 'all year' smell? If you work to wash the buck, they would just work harder to put it back. And if he is too clean the does might not be interested- if you know what i mean. There is a reason for the smell. It makes the does "like" him more. So the stinker he is, the more the does are crazy for him.
Enjoy your goat experience. They truely are like potato chips. You want another and another.... We were just going to have three...and now we have a few dairy and more fiber goats and we are closer to thirty. Selling soon to get back to under twenty, hopefully.
Pam

If you really want to get the buck smell off your hands, use goat milk soap!! I'm not kidding, it works like a charm. My laundry soap is made from homemade goat milk soap too and it takes the smell out of clothes, provided it isn't super strong.

I'll take back my response that they are not that bad. he boys have been rutting now for a couple of days and oh my does their section of barn stink to high heaven. Tony is older and he really stinks.Jimmy doesn't smell quite as bad. I have decided to sell Jimmy right away instead of waiting to see who throws better kids. I don't want or have room for both of them.

Okay.... so if both of my does are bred, and there are no other goats around, will the buck stop his fall/winter rut? If the does aren't going into heat, he wouldn't need to stink himself all up to attract them, right? Or does he just keep himself stinky "just in case"??

Also, am I understanding correctly that if I give him free access to does at the beginning of breeding season (fall), he won't stink as much because he won't have the need to attract anything (they'll already be there)?

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Miniature Bull Terriers
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I don't have time to read through all the posts, but it depends on the buck. A young buck will usually not smell as much as a mature buck, and some breeds are less smelly than others (usually the seasonal breeders are the smelliest, the year-round breeders the least smelly). But my now-four-year-old Oberhasli buck has yet to get terribly smelly when he's in rut. And a Kinder buck was one of the smelliest bucks I've had (Alpine was the other smelliest one).

A year or two after I got my first goats, we walked into a breeder's barn to look at her bucks (planning to breed our does to one of them), and the smell of six mature, in-rut bucks confined to a barn just about knocked me over. I could smell them long before we got to the barn. I don't know if I've gotten used to the smell, or if it's because mine aren't shut up inside a building (they have a three-sided shed), but they just don't bother me that much anymore. However, do be prepared to have 'chore clothes' that you wear for taking care of the buck when he's in rut, and change out of them when you go back in. Also be prepared to have to shower before going to town or having company!

Kathleen

yea they stink-it gets worse as they grow older. My yearling buckling doesn't smell at all yet, my bucks 2 years & up ought to market a perfume for the youngsters.

My senior buck likes to rub against me, too. Since rut started he's lucky to get a finger scritch on his shoulder. Wheeeeeew! Poor guy doesn't understand I don't find him appealing these day, lol.
HF

Okay.... so if both of my does are bred, and there are no other goats around, will the buck stop his fall/winter rut? If the does aren't going into heat, he wouldn't need to stink himself all up to attract them, right? Or does he just keep himself stinky "just in case"??

Also, am I understanding correctly that if I give him free access to does at the beginning of breeding season (fall), he won't stink as much because he won't have the need to attract anything (they'll already be there)?
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Yeah, you just believe all that

1. Bucks in rut have no blood in their brain to think They will breed a post. They stay in rut by the off chance anything stands still long enough for him to breed, they stay in rut and sitnking until hormone levels lower, which is about light and day length, just like does in heat....has nothing to do with having does around, they are in rut with no does on the place. With does around they just display more.

2. Giving a buck free access to your milkers means you are stinky when you milk, they are stinky when you milk them...and you will be mlking them for 3 months while they are pregnant....means you are going to shower twice a day after milking and still have milk that is stinky from going through buck smell in the barn.

With a young buck breeding your first does he won't be stinking yet...this way you have him in the pen with your girls and he will teach you about heat cycles, about breeding etc... Vicki

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Vicki McGaugh
Nubian Soaps
North of Houston TX
www.etsy.com/shop/nubiansoaps

A 3 decade dairy goat farm homestead that is now a retail/wholesale soap company and construction business.

I currently have a Nigerian buck (actually got him in Syracuse, UT), but have had quite a variety of boys before.... La Mancha, La Mancha/Nubian, Nubian, Alpine, Saanan, Pygmy, Mini Alpine.... the girls I have now are all mixes. I've noticed more variation based on maturity than breed.
Oh, and I'm about 2hours away from you.

You can't blame me for wishful thinking!! LOL

Okay, so I just need to keep him separate from the ladies, so that the girls won't stink. That's do-able, I was just trying to think outside the box

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Miniature Bull Terriers
www.PatronusMiniBulls.com
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I am not sure about any difference in smell, but when I do pen breeding, the bucks that I have are a LOT calmer, and do not act nearly as crazy as they do when they are penned by themselves.

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry

This ^

I would not keep a mature buck on less than an acre. I agree with Vicki, make sure your does are bred and confirmed pregnant when you get them. That buys you a year. After that when you want to breed get a buck kid and then sell or eat him as soon as the does are confirmed pregnant. Since you can't have more than three adult goats, consider milking your does for two years at a time instead of breeding every year.

I have five acres and four does. I do not keep a buck. I will bring a buck of each breed (Saanen and Guernsey) to my farm just long enough to get the girls bred, and then he will go back to where he came from. Bucks are a huge hassle. Young ones aren't that hard to deal with, but mature bucks are a pain.

Bruce Almighty.. my pygmy buck does have a definate scent to him... must not too horrible bad at all. Dosent really bother anyone here I guess it just depends on the individual buck I like having him around because he is so stately

I am going to butt in here. Something to think about you do not have to breed each year to keep a doe in milk. You can just milk thru. Something for you to read up about for all you have to do is breed once and just keep on milking all thru the year. Amounts will drop back in fall and winter but will pick up again in spring. I have read about people doing this for many year on one breeding only. This way you only need to breed once, maybe twice and just keep on milking. It would save alot of hassel. Good Luck.

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Breeding Working farm dogs and
La Mancha Dairy Goats.

I agree with this. When I asked about breeding on this board, I was told that, as a newbie it would be very unlikely to find someone who would be willing to take my does for breeding or lease me a buck. The advice was to go back to the breeder that I got them from & she is three hours away.

For me, it worked out to buy a buckling from her (rather than haul my girls back & forth for breeding). She had a stellar buck year & had two left that she wanted to get moved out. We have six acres & I will keep him at least through fall 2010. After that, we will see. Right now he is as sweet as can be & not too smelly.

If I were limited on the number of goats I could have & had neighbors as close as yours, I would have done as Vicki suggests. It makes things lots less complicated.

Our Boer buck went for a 'walkabout' the other day. Several miles away to a local campground! DH stopped on his way home and crammed Gorgeous George into the back of his Subaru Outback to bring him home. Dang! I liked that car too!

Hours later I opened the tailgate and just about tossed my cookies! Buy stock in Febrize, because Ill be using several cases on DH's car!

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

My yearling buck sure smells worse this year than he did last year. YUCK. And he's a lunatic right now, wanting to breed anything. I hate to tell him he has to wait a bit. He was so pretty and nice, and now all his white is turning orange, and his beard is perennially soaked. EWWW I can't get near him without that stench on me. Last year he wasn't too bad. But, I don't smell him unless I'm near him.

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ICOG7.ORG
Layton Hollow ADGA Nubians
Taking Reservation for 2015!

I remember reading somewhere (where? I have no idea...) that you can "de-scent" bucklings.

True? False? Wishful thinking?

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Je ne suis pas Alice

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There are scent glands in the head that can be burned off when a kid is disbudded or else surgically removed. I have heard though that this can make them less attractive to does. It still doesn't keep them from urinating on themselves, so you still end up with a stinky buck, even without those scent glands.

Hm. Maybe I should teach him to enjoy getting bathed?

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