Can i breed my pygmy doe with a dwarf nigerian buck?*advice please*

[enola]

Do you guys actually keep the buck in the same barn with the does while you are milking the does ?

 

[redhen]

Quote:
ooh, good idea! maybe i can just get a doe and breed her out, and not have to deal with a buck at all!...i will check into that!....thanks!

 

[Chirpy]

I just wanted to ditto the part about not keeping an intact buck. Because the smaller breeds (Pygmys and Nigis) can be bred year long you will have to control his access to the doe so you get the kids when you want them.

And, having a buck near/with your doe when you are milking her can easily cause the milk to take on a "goatie" flavor. I know this from personal experience.

If you really want to milk.. I would highly suggest you either get a Nigi that comes from good milk lines or go with a larger milk breed.

 

[redhen]

i just e-mailed the person asking if i can bring her back there yearly (or however it is done) to be bred, so i can stay in milk all year long. i really hope that i can do this!.

...because i really dont want a buck!.....3 goats (2 of them small breeds) in my 8x12 isnt to bad, is it?...plus, they have outdoor access from early in the a.m. till dusk..

 

[redhen]

or..maybe i should go back to the lady i got my alpine from and ask if i can get a doe and bring her back yearly for breeding...except shes 2 hours away!...

 

[PortageGirl]

A two hour drive there. leave the doe, for a week or more, and then a two hour drive again to get her, so yeah, a bit of driving, BUT, look at it this way, a couple trips and in return you get a good supply of milk. Sounds worth it to me!!

Anyway, you might look into some closer bucks too, depends on if you care if the kids are purebreds. I think it's good in general to keep decent bloodlines, but, it's all part of what you decide is best!

 

[Chatychick]

Believe me I only wish there was a buck close to me as they do smell and if he is running with the doe while you milk its only good for soap making not DRINKING...it will get a bucky taste to it....My boys are kept far away from my does and I have lots of space....yep you will need a larger space for when she kids also. And boy do they buck smell...

 

[mekasmom]

I breed my pygmy male with all my does. You do have to keep him away from a milking doe due to the odor. The milk goats are only in heat seasonally. If you keep kinders or other pygmys they can be in heat any time of the year.
For me, it is easier to separate the milking doe from the others rather than separating the billy from the does. I guess depending upon your pens and buildings or number of goats, it might be easier the other way for you. My billy just stays with any doe that is not milking. They all get along fine.
Another way to easily do it, is simply take a milking doe out of the pen and milk in a separate location away from the billy. That has worked out fine for us.
As far as behavior......... My billy is much easier to handle than some of the pygmy does that I have. The Nubian and Alpine does are easier to handle than the billy. And Boers are just hard to handle overall, in my opinion. But I would take a billy over a Boer doe or pygmy doe any day when it comes to ease of handling.

 

[ametauss]

I have three pygmy does and a pygmy buck.... We have an open barn and they have a 4x8x4h house that they can all fit in but they usually sleep in crazy places.... two bred does have taken to sleeping in the chicken coop

Since my girls are due this weekend, I have put the billy in a dog run inside the barn to keep him from bumping the girls but he's a bit frisky...

I'll be looking for a home for the little guy... I hate to do it but I don't want him breeding his off spring or the original does when I don't want him to.... I don't have a place to separate him from the does permanatly....

 

[byrandom]

I never noticed a bad smell with our buck. Of course, if you consider a strong musky-odor a bad smell, then I guess I did. You get used to it.

I just wanted to comment on being in milk year-round. It is best to let the doe gradually dry up prior to kidding (some say 2-weeks prior, some say a month-prior) to kidding. We have never milked our girls for that long. We use the "drying up" method outlined in Storey's Guide. You should pick it up if you don't already have it. Most public libraries even carry Storey's Guide to ANYTHING.