How bad is the smell?

[bluemoonluck]

For those of you who keep bucks.... exactly how bad does a buck smell?

I've heard everything from "can't smell him even during rut unless I'm in his pen" to "I can smell him from a mile down the road."

I am allowed to have goats on my property - I checked the zoning before I moved in - but I want to be a good neighbor too

Thanks!

[NEfarmgirl]

We kept our friends goats for them after a tornado took their goat building and the smell of a buck in rut for us was bad. He didn't smell until the end of July and I can not describe the musky smell he produced. We could smell it outside of the house and if we set foot in the barn they were in our clothes smelled so bad we would have to change. Our friends didn't think they smelled that bad--but they are used to it.

[mpete]

I wish my buck smelled worse! lol... He's 1.5 and barely smells enough to interest the girls... but my boer buck that I had was bad whenever we were by his pen... I think it also depends on how close to your house he is... but if you arn't going to have a lot of does to have bred, then you can just use a neighbors so you don't have that problem! Does do not smell and neither do wethers... what kind of goats were you planning on getting?

[Backfourty,MI.]

I have Nigerians dwarf goats which are year around breeders & I think the adult bucks smell pretty bad but it doesn't bother us because we are use to it, we also have 40 acres & no neigbors that close. If it bothers company or family when they come to visit they don't say anything.
They have a smell year around but I do think starting end of summer to early fall they smell worse.
We have what we call goat clothes that we wear in the winter & even after washing the smell doesn't come out. I hang them in the basement. We Love them still though.
Have a young buck born here this spring who's just a little over 3 months & if you get close to his head he's already stating to get the buck smell.

[Elsbet]

Our Nubian boy smells like mothballs. He loves to gently, gently, gently lean his forehead against me, which means I end up smelling like mothballs, too. Blech.

[petaddict]

I don't think my nigerian dwarf buck smells bad at all. He's a little over a year old. Sometimes he smells stronger than other times. The only time I smell him is if he's rubbing up against me or if he's in the barn close to me.

[Bricore]

My two Mini Nub bucks really smell (they are super friendly and of course want to love on you when you come around them. I don't like the smell myself but they aren't in rut all year round so I put up with it.)

My Saanen/Nub Mix buck isn't as bad as my Mini Nub's for some reason. He is only 1 1/2 years old so maybe that has something to do with it (I am not sure.)

We have them far enough away where we don't smell them unless we are out with them. There are some days where I can smell them more then others but most of the time we can't smell them unless we are pretty close to their pen.

I never go out to my bucks (when they are in rut) before I have to go out in public unless I have time for a shower and to change before I go.

Dora Renee' Wilkerson

[jil101ca]

My hubby says they stink but he also said that about my male ferrit I use to have. They do smell sometimes more so than others but i don't think it's that bad once your used to it.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Mature bucks, OMG. You wear gloves and means coveralls, and you still have to shower with comet to get off the top layer of skin that still smells like the boys! But in the end they smell like money, without good bucks, and nothing is better than senior proven bucks, you can't make the big buck$ Vicki

[bluemoonluck]

If I personally get stinky, I can shower.... My concern is ONLY with how much of this stink is airborne, for the sake of being a good neighbor.

I am *hoping* to get LaManchas.... I've got a lead on two does, although the woman hasn't emailed me back with a price list yet (and I've been on the edge of my seat waiting, LOL!!). I may also have a lead on a buck, which is why I ask.

I'm only allowed to have 3 adult goats on my property, along with the other critters that I have/am getting. BUT I do not have a stock trailer or any other method of transporting my goats, so I can't really take my does to a buck to be serviced every year. AI sounds expensive and complicated, so its not an option either. So if I want milk (which is pretty much the entire reason I'm getting the goats), I need a buck here on my property.

The neighbors behind us have horses and cows, although their fence is probably 100 feet from my back fence. They also have a hay field, I think, because they were spraying fertilizer the other day and BOY I could smell that!

My lot is under an acre, and I have neighbors on either side who have lots about the same size. I'm going to put the buck at the back of my property, but I still don't want to give the neighbors any reason to complain.

[tiergarten-CO]

my family thinks im crazy but i like the smell..

[KayJay]

IMO it really depends on the buck. Some seem to smell worse than others. The older they are the more they tend to stink, also. The buck I used to have could be smelled from a good 200 yards away on a windy day lol. So far my new guy doesn't smell much, but he's still a young'un. If you don't mind me asking, where in Utah are you? I'm not far from Utah... would invite you over to smell the buck , but the new guy isn't as stinky as he'll get yet, and the old guy is gone.

[bluemoonluck]

Originally Posted by KayJay

IMO it really depends on the buck. Some seem to smell worse than others. The older they are the more they tend to stink, also. The buck I used to have could be smelled from a good 200 yards away on a windy day lol. So far my new guy doesn't smell much, but he's still a young'un. If you don't mind me asking, where in Utah are you? I'm not far from Utah... would invite you over to smell the buck , but the new guy isn't as stinky as he'll get yet, and the old guy is gone.

I'm in North Ogden, about an hour south of the Idaho line.....

What breed of goats do you have? I don't know if some breeds are less stinky than others or not.....

[mawalla]

I used the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dawn liquid dish soap formula that I our vet clinic uses to deskunk dogs on my hands to get the buck smell off after helping the vet work on one. It helped a lot.

[bluemoonluck]

Originally Posted by mawalla

I used the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dawn liquid dish soap formula that I our vet clinic uses to deskunk dogs on my hands to get the buck smell off after helping the vet work on one. It helped a lot.

Do you think I could use this to give the buck a bath, to keep his smell down? Or something else, maybe like the KOE (kennel odor eliminator) spray I use for the dog kennels?

I'm not worried about the smell on me, I'm worried about how badly HE smells and the neighbors complaining!

[Elsbet]

I doubt the wash would help with cleaning the whole goat- he'll just keep making more scent. They do get pretty whiffy.
Some people seem to be more sensitive to the smell than others.
Have you talked to your neighbors?
We talked to our close neighbors before getting our goats. One didn't care about the smell, he just didn't want them climbing on his cars and boats. I wouldn't want that, either. We keep them penned. The other neighbor went into rhapsodies talking about the smelly old buck they used to have, and were looking forward to seeing ours.

We've paved the "friendliness" way in our neighborhood by giving away eggs and veggies, and canned pickles, too, lol. And the older couples around us love our children, and having me come over to chat (I'm not allowed to just drop stuff off, I get dragged in the door and hospitalitityed, hehe.). I think they get lonely. That's ok, I do too. So no one minds my goats. Most people stop by when they are out walking to talk to my goats, or throw food down for the chickens, pat the cats, walk through my flower/veggie gardens with me. I love my neighborhood for the most part. It's a good place for kids and kids.

[jennigrey]

There's a place I drive by fairly often and I can smell a buck there if I have the truck window open even a little. Not sure how far away from the road they keep him. There's a fenceline about 4' off the road that has some goats behind it but I don't know if one of them is the buck I'm smelling.

[Wags]

I have Nigerians - the only time it gets bad is if several of my does happen to cycle at the same time and I put them in with him. Otherwise he doesn't smell, unless you are very close to him.

It does seems to vary from buck to buck, some are definitely more odoriferous than others.

[Lizza]

For the most part, yes they smell, and a lot, during rut. There is not anything you can do about it. They pee on themselves regularly (all day), so anything you do and they'll just smell themselves up again for the ladies. Mine actually pee on their heads when they see me coming, I think maybe they are trying to attract me .

Your close neighbors will notice, no two ways about it, but they might not care. As long as you aren't RIGHT next to them the smell is mostly tolerable. Just make sure your zoning is not for 3 female animals. A lot of city ordinances forbid the males (roosters, bucks, ect), so just double check on that.

I forgot to add that I have a LaMancha Buck, a Nubian Buck, and a Oberhalsi Buck. The Nubian is a youngen and doesn't smell much but the other two are mature bucks, very stinky.

[Wildwood]

If you end up with one of the smellier guys and your neighbors are that close, they are going to smell him from time to time. If they spend a lot of time in their yards and they don't love goats I think it could be problematic. Any chance you could find him another home if it doesn't work out? You'll never know for sure til you try it.

For what it's worth, my nigie buck had to have his hooves trimmed when he was at a very stinky time last year so I took the opportunity to mix some dawn and a small amount of bleach in a very large bucket of warm water and scrubbed down his legs and other areas with a soft brush and poured the remaining water over the areas when I was through scrubbing. It did help matters a good deal and it took him a while to get to his previous level of stink and he seemed to feel extra good after his mini bath. Of course DH was telling me the whole time that I was wasting my time but he had to admit he was wrong LOL.

He had wet on the back of his front legs til they were getting very irritated. After the bath, they healed right up.