I just love pygmies! I have two nigerians (doe and buck) and one pygmy doe, Flower, I swear she thinks she is a dog. It's so funny she even sits like a dog, none of the other goats do that.
So congrats on your new babies! Anyhow my Flower is age undetermined, we are at least her third and last people. Best guess is around three. She was never bred and her and my Nigi Appy have been roomies for a year now. I decided to introduce a buck for two reasons. As my nigi is registered, I got a registered buck, the intent is that we would have babies that are registerable with nice lines so that we could A) have some milk!!! and B) we could pass the registered babies forward at a nice enough price to cover our goats needs, i.e food, bedding, vaccinations and so on.
So of course, the buck, doesn't just have eyes for Appy, it reminds me of a bad episode of PePe Lepue, tongue wagging, grunting and chasing poor Flower every which way, She loves him one moment, then runs and says look what he is trying to do!!!. Appy is all set with him I think we have babies on the way.
This is, we now know, going to be Flowers first run at being a mommy. So needless to say I checked about,..seems the norm is 1 year for breeding,..I don't see much about retiring of bucks,..in fact most of what I read about bucks treatment kind of bugs me. They are sort of viewed as studs,..out of site, up a hill at some other location and so on. I am finding with my buck, even in his state of doe mania, he has sweet soulful look in his eyes just a cutey with a little extra musk, okay you kind of want to encapulate your hand after a patting, but hey you take the good with the bad. Actually to be real honest,..the smell doesn't bother me so much as yet.. He is three by the by. So from what I read and asked around to breeders is a year is the norm for the does,..you should give them plenty of space inbetween breeding which you can do as you have more than one. Smart not to breed them, as I have together,..stagger your births. Have one pregnant and birthing and let your second doe become pregnant when the first gives birth, it will keep you in milk and not overhwhelm you with babies.
Ok so here is my question for you,..what do you plan to do for your buck when the gals are birthing and you need keep him away from the gals for fear of impregnating the mom who just birthed and the doelings that hit some weeks to be able to have an unexpected pregnancy? I myself am building a separate minibarn for him and I plan to introduce another buck for company, as well so we don't end up inbreeding. For instance, Appy has a doe we would like to keep when her time comes to mate, she can't be impregnanted, well shouldn't be, by her sire,..so buck number two comes in. This way is also logical because you can't keep a goat alone. Alot of people get a wether to chum with the buck, but I figure if I am going to be feeding and housing boy number 2, he should also have a nice job to contribute to the overall farm.
By the way I just love your website. Again congrats!
