Now I feel terrible! I opened up the gallon jar with the buck rag and set it down with the girls. Summer had no real interest but Capri stuck her nose right into it. Ginger did as well. However, Capri, as soon as she was done "rooting" in it stepped forward, squatted and peed right beside it. She later kept going back and smelling her own pee spot like she was expecting something to have been done with it. Afterward, she also was smelling all over my pants legs and started rubbing her head against my leg. She has never rubbed me like that before. She also stayed very close to me the rest of the time I was there, touching me most of the time and rubbing the sides of her nose against my hand. She is not an unfriendly girl by any means but this was more affection than she generally shows. She had been calling a little earlier in the day but I wasn't sure if it might have been because of neighborhood activity. There has also been some tail wagging though not a lot. I think I now understand what you are talking about when you say "standing heat" because she stood beside that jar and kept looking back, first one side then the other like she expected the buck to show up. When I went back out later, she was standing up on the concrete blocks looking towards the door sticking her tongue in and out like she was "tasting" the air. I think she was also calling a bit ago but since Ginger calls all the time, I wasn't absolutely certain. Of course there is no buck around which is why I feel terrible.
So if she is in heat and is back in three weeks later, that makes it October 20 which would mean she would be due around March 19th assuming she is bred. I had planned to have Summer bred first and Capri two to four months later (so I could have continuous milk) but perhaps I should do it the other way around. The primary reason I wanted Summer bred first is that she will be two in early January. I seem to remember someone saying does should be bred before they are two. Thoughts?
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When they say that goats should kid by the time they're two years old, that is +/- a few months.
"Standing heat" means that the doe will stand for the buck, and sometimes it is only a couple hours -- or it could be all day. Normally, if a doe is not in heat, and another goat tries to mount her, she will run off. If she is in standing heat, she will stand there and let the other goat (buck or doe) mount her.