# Keeping a buck



## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

I'm thinking about keeping a buck, I'm not 100% sure, though because I don't want to have to deal with that smell! I've read about removing the scent glands while dehorning, does this really make a difference in the nasty gross smell, or not? TIA!


----------



## Golden Delta Alpines (Mar 8, 2012)

I wouldn't remove the scent glands.
It doesn't always remove the whole buck smell if you remove the scent glands.
Plus, the buck smell helps the whole breeding process/heat cycles with the does, at least that's what I've heard....


----------



## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

One thing that is so gross about a buck is the urine all over his face and legs. Removing a scent gland won't take that away. But really, I just think of that buck smell as the "smell of money". LOL Without a buck we can't have babies or milk.


----------



## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

You get used to the smell, believe it or not.


----------



## Golden Delta Alpines (Mar 8, 2012)

Exactly, the smell really isn't that bad.


----------



## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

LOL, when the inlaws came over, then promptly commented on the smell, I told them: 

"Breathe deep, that's the smell of future baby goats"



Some smell more than others, my Alpine was one rank beast, but my Lamancha wasn't so bad.


----------



## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

My Nigerian bucks had a stronger smell than my Alpine, Nubian, Oberhasli and Boer bucks put together! They may be small, but they are potent!


----------



## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

The scent glands are highly overrated- your does have them too.
Or maybe highly over-blamed is what I should say.
The true perfume of a buck comes from decomposing urine that makes tar on the back of their legs and face if they do that. If you do not keep them confined in breeding season they will not perfume themselves. This is a displacement behavior to replace the normal way they would act which is quietly tend to a doe testing urine until she was ready to breed and then do the job and on to the next one with little fuss and very little odor. 

The smell is the price you pay for perverting their normal behavior. That and pacing and never eating normally and bashing each other as well as the smell does not have to be. Once your does are bred there is no reason on earth not to just leave the bucks with them which is why you want socialized and biddable bucks. I just clip them to a fence with a feed dish mounted on it while bringing the does in to milk and they eat and resume grazing with the herd after they are milked. Peace in the barnyard and no stink.

And no...they do not make the milk stink. You make the milk stink by letting your buck make pee tar and then smear it all over everything because all they want to do is be with their does. It is much easier on them and they live longer and hold weight better and don't tear down fences and do not attack when you try to remove a doe etc. 
If there is any way you can arrange to keep your young does apart from those you want bred then letting the buck run with the does is the best way to avoid perfume 
For accurate due dates watch who the buck is eating next to and checking urine of and then note messy tails in the morning on the calender.
Lee


----------



## Golden Delta Alpines (Mar 8, 2012)

Oh, wow! I didn't know that bucks do not make milk smell!
Does that mean I could let my buck in with my milkers?
He is not in rut anymore, and hardly smells.
I haven't seen any yuck on his legs either...


----------



## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I so totally agree with Vicki. I love having my buck run with the does, he likes it, only the does don't! I've never had a mean buck. Plus, my bucks really don't pee on themselves until I separate them for kidding season.


----------



## sharob51 (Jan 18, 2012)

Thanks for the great info. Our buck that we have had the past 3 years is separated, because he would run my does ragged. He was bottle raised and loves me, but during rut will attack any male that walks by. I also thought it would make the milk smell or taste bad. I may have to rethink my two new bucks that I just bought.


----------



## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Vicki has said to get a buck kid, use him in the fall, then sell him. The younger they are the less they smell. That being said, my two that were born last spring stunk in the fall. And yes, I keep them in a separate pen from the does.


----------



## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

dragonlair said:


> My Nigerian bucks had a stronger smell than my Alpine, Nubian, Oberhasli and Boer bucks put together! They may be small, but they are potent!


My mom's mini Alpine buck is the most rank thing ever!!! Must be the Nigerian in him! Man he's nasty...... He lived with 3 does for a few months & the stink lessened, but didn't go away....

My lamancha did the typical perfuming, but it only lasted while the girls were cycling, then he stopped for the most part even though he's always lived with other bucks..... He's just a mellow fella 

You can have your buck with does & milk with no issues. Just don't rub on him before milking, wash hands & udder well & quickly filter/chill the milk..... Basically, normal sanitary milking procedure...... A buck can't effect the milk inside the udder, so the only way it can be contaminated is from poor handling from us.


----------



## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

I've had two mini alpine bucks, and they have each been stinkier than my ND buck.


----------



## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

Another thing to help with stink is bathing and keeping their hair short. In a cold environment that may not be possible but here it seems there are always a few warm days here and there even in fall and winter when I can give the bucks a quick bath and clip the hair around their faces necks and legs. Not really too much trouble and I think they actually like the attention.  Even without bathing, just keeping the hair trimmed makes a difference.


----------



## smithurmonds (Jan 20, 2011)

My ND bucks aren't all that bad... or perhaps I'm used to it? I have 3 bucks living communally and sharing a fenceline with the does. No one fights and no one paces the fence unless a doe is cycling and teasing them. When all my seniors are bred the bucks just mellow out together and play fight occasionally. I can't imagine having a buck living by himself aways from the others.


----------



## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

In the fall, there is nothing in the world that can mask that odor! We usually start getting a whiff now and then around about August...and it gets worse until all the does are bred. Some bucks smell worse than others. I've got a young one that doesn't smell at all. Our older boy though...smells like a sick, sweet, rotting pine tree...or something. I'm used to it yes, but I dont really care for it. Having the buck pen downwind of the house should help this fall I hope. Our buck lives with horses until he's in rut. When he first starts rut, before he remembers he's a goat, he loves on his favorite mare and stinks her up quite nicely....it's embarrasing taking her to rides smelling like that, which is one of the reasons we move him in the fall. The other reason is that fencing becomes an issue and 5 strands of hot wire will no longer hold him in.


----------



## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

The other horses must really love your mare! hehehe


----------



## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

Yeah, I can catch a sweet smell in the buck scent too. My husband doesn't smell it. I still don't like it though, lol.


----------



## Oat Bucket Farm (Mar 2, 2009)

We keep two bucks together. I would never make them live alone. They share a fence line with the does and like Niki's they only pace the fence when a doe is in heat. Once everyone is bred, they chill out and go back to lazing around.


----------



## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

There's usually a month or so before I put the bucks in with the does that the smell is strong. My brain processes it as a metallic taste - weird. Actually the worst goat smell to me is those burps the does blow in my face every night at milking time - :ick


----------



## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

Yeah, those are lovely, huh? Try getting kisses from a llama!!


----------



## tlcnubians (Jan 21, 2011)

We have six mature Nubian bucks that live together in a large pasture right behind our house. The pasture shares a fenceline with the doe pasture. Fortunately our boys don't smell all that bad, and neither my husband nor I mind the smell.


----------



## IndyGardenGal (Jun 11, 2009)

Our bucks don't smell that bad. Now that we have a new buck shelter going up, they won't be close enough to the house to smell too bad.


----------



## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Unless your sensitive to it like I am, I think some people can become immune to how bad the bucks smell, in the air, on them,  Kind of like folks who smoke or have cats or ferrets....they don't smell it on their clothes or in their house or cars, but we do...in line at Walmart LOL!

A good disbudding job on bucks is hard, and no disbudding job no matter how well done gets rid of the boys stink....reread Lee's post  V


----------



## Golden Delta Alpines (Mar 8, 2012)

:yeahthat


----------



## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

Vicki McGaugh Tx Nubians said:


> Unless your sensitive to it like I am, I think some people can become immune to how bad the bucks smell, in the air, on them,  Kind of like folks who smoke or have cats or ferrets....they don't smell it on their clothes or in their house or cars, but we do...in line at Walmart LOL!


Oh my goodness! I was at petsmart the other day and behind a couple that had (I counted) 15 very large bags of cat litter in their cart. I promise you when I say I wanted to vomit from the smell of those people, I am not exagerating! I can only imagine having to "run to town" after doing goat chores and the person in line behind me wondering what that putrid smell is! :rofl

has anyone ever thought of putting a diaper of some sort on a buck to contain the pee? :shrug2


----------



## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

You smell cats? Or you just mean pee? 

I do wonder sometimes how much I smell. I will go outside for five minutes and my mom will say I smell. Huh? It's bad when you smell yourself. There are summer days sometimes that I shower three times in one day. Those are productive days 

I know I gotta smell awful after I trim horses, and if it's a new client and I pull shoes- it's inhumane to have to have your head that close to a hoof sometimes!


----------



## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

Ashley, I'm pretty sure she means the cat pee. That stuff infliltrates everything! LOL
Wow! If you're only outside for 5 minutes and someone can smell it on you.... that sounds pretty potent. I'll just keep saving my dollars and use my friend's buck. Since she only has lamanchas and one Nigerian Dwarf, then I suppose I'll be starting on a mini program! LOL I do like the idea of raising a buck, using him, and then selling him before he gets too smelly, I just wonder what I would do if I ever wanted to use him again....


----------



## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

I don't think she was talking about buck smell specifically. You don't get buck smell on you from being near them. If they rub their stinky head on you, then yes. I've found it to get stinkier each year. Even a two year old is not as bad as a five year old.


----------



## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

Yea, I wasn't talking buck smell, just "outside" smell I guess lol


----------

