Separating my Buck

I have two does that are pregnant, and one buck.  Does should kid around January 12th. My goats are together in a 32'x32' fenced enclosure. They all seem to get along fine. 

The question is do I need to put him in his own pen and if so why is that?

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  • Since my does and buck lived together for my first kidding, I'll chime in.

    I never anticipated keeping does and bucks together, but I bought a buck ahead of schedule since I couldn't get my one doe bred via driveway breeding. So two does and a buck lived together for four months before my doe that had a successful driveway breeding kidded, and then for four months afterward.

    I had a pen to put her in once kidding was certain to happen within a day. If I hadn't already had the kidding pen in place, I would've built one as the other doe was more dominant and I wanted her to have peace while kidding.
    I didn't let the kids around the other doe and buck for the first week, then I let them all commingle supervised for short periods of time (30min to an hour). After three weeks, everyone hung out together during the day and mom and kids were penned up at night. After six weeks, just the kids got locked up at night (which was a mistake for nutritional reasons; I shouldn't have started taking milk from them yet). When the kids were four months old, I finished my lot expansion, with a new shelter for the buck and buckling and I separated them from the girls, but they still share a fence line (mix of 2x4 no climb and pallets).

    (Meanwhile, the other doe miscarried, was bred again, and kidded after the separation)

    I never had any issues with the buck and the kids, but he is also probably my most chill goat. The other doe was not (and is still not) nice to those first kids more than a year later.

    Mom came into heat three times after kidding while living with the buck. She got locked up in the kidding pen for two days for each heat. One time, she came into heat a day early and she got bred. I took her to the vet for a shot of lutalyse.
    This is the main reason for separating the buck out. I was very upset that my mismanagement could have caused my girl to go through the stress of pregnancy and kidding twice in the span of a year.

    Regardless of what your long term plans are space wise, I'd create a separate space for the buck within the current enclosure. Two livestock panels to create a 16x16 space in one of the corners would be a quick and pretty economic solution. However, their spaces are pretty large and he could potentially still breed your does through them. Pallets are easy to work with to create a fence line and depending on their source may be even more economic (and you can build him a little house with them, too). If money were no object, I'd use 2x4 no climb fencing and t-posts.
  • The first seven or eight years we had goats, all of the does were together, and they were fine. The only time we had a problem with the does was in a situation that was obviously problematic before the doe even went into labor, as the other goats were constantly beating her up. In fact, I think that caused her to go into premature labor, as we found her in labor two weeks early with goats butting her.

    Since most people don't keep their bucks and does together -- because bucks will make the does stinky -- there isn't a ton of anecdotal info on how that works after kidding. My pigs are all one big happy family after farrowing with the boars being perfect daddies, even letting the piglets try to nurse on them, but we lost three cria before I realized my male llama was killing them.

    If you separate him from the does, and he is alone, he will be unhappy and probably loud. If you can figure out how they can at least share a fenceline, that might help. The best solution would be to purchase a second buck or a wether as a companion. Personally, I don't sell a single buck to someone with no other goats for this reason.

  • I would, since this is your first kidding and you don't really know how the does or the buck will react to it. Some bucks are fine with kids, and some are not. And occasionally, but not often, does can be troublesome to kids other than theirs.  If you can, keep the buck in a pen where he can at least see the does so he doesn't get too stressed out from being alone.  And it would be good if you can have a separate area in the does' pen where they can be alone with their kids for the first few days.  Then you can slowly introduce everyone under your supervision. 

    It will all probably be fine since goats are herd animals and know how to live in groups, but for the first time, I wouldn't take a chance that something might go wrong. 

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