All our smelly boys, Falcon, Silver, & Cavan. 

It is in the early morning hours. The sun has barely began to poke it's smiley face up making an appearance to start the day. The closer you get to the barn you notice an extremely heavy musky smell coming from the bachelor bucks' house. Oh, this is just letting you know that love is in the air. The boys are ready to appeal to the ladies for their romantic interests. 

If you haven't been around buck goats (intact males) then you would more than likely find this smell repulsive. Some of us go nose blind to it since we are around it all the time. Even with that said it is heavier in the fall season then any other time of the year. Call it nature's Valentines holiday. This is when some of your sweet gentleman can turn into real @sshats. Extra pushing, butting, and some might even have the gull to pee on you, not just themselves. These guys stink most of the time but during rut is is three times worse.

Cavan strutting his stuff followed by Falcon.

Why are these guys so stinky? A little bit on how the boys special scent is created. They have scent glands located next to their horns. Add that to the fact that they pee on their heads and beards making themselves stronger than a teenage boy layering on the Axe body spray. Not really pleasant at all. Getting rid of this smell from your skin and clothes can be hard. Homemade soaps made with goat milk and anise essential oil can help out with that due to anise being great on helping removing odors. Shred this soap and add it to your laundry load to help take the stench from your clothes. If you would prefer to add the shaved soap to your current laundry solution you can do that too. To help reduce some of the smell of your buck you can trim their beards, wash their faces and undersides to help keep down the scent.

If you have little buckling kids, don't think that you are safe from them stinking like a mature buck. Some bucklings hit sexual maturity at the age of two months. That little and that young. At this age they can even go as far to breed the does and doelings. Separating them is a good idea at this point if not sooner. 

The girls enjoying some nice green brush. 

It is a good idea to keep your bucks away from the does not just for accidental breeding purposes but because they can change the taste of the goats milk. Who would have thought that another creatures scent could change milks taste that isn't created by them? Having a buck in or close residence of your milking does can give the milk a goaty flavor. 

Even though our boys stink to high heaven currently, we adore them. They are sweet, blubbering, tongue wagging fools. They still love attention and greet us at the fence. Soon we will be setting them up for some dates and they can do their jobs that they have been preparing for. We hope for a successful kidding season this upcoming Spring 2019. It will be the first one under our farms name. 

The one last thing that did make us chuckle is our oldest son, Devion said that the boys smell "fruity". Has anyone else found that to be the case? Leave us a comment as we would like to know your opinion on it. Have a blessed day. 

Fairlea Sieglinde celebrating Labor Day 2018. 

If you talk to people about goats, most think weed eaters, brush cutters, and milk. A person deciding to get goats needs to take a little bit of time to figure out what breed that they want to start their herd out with. There are quite a few out there that have their strengths and amazing potential to offer for a goat farmer. The first thing you need to ask yourself is what purpose would you like to use your goats for? Most people get dairy or meat goats. There are some that like to use goats for fibers, pulling cart, or just having pet goats. This blog segment is a ice breaker to the breeds we will cover over the next couple of months. Maybe sooner if time allows. Oh, who am I kidding? Time is in short supply these days.

We are going to list a few breeds by what their purpose is normally used for in a herd. Some goat breeds have multiple uses. ​Having multiple use breeds cuts down on having to have different goats on your farm and keeping even closer eye on no cross breeding. If that was what you were working towards. 

Red Maple's PW Black Majyk

©Kimberly S. Doerr at T. H. Photography