I enjoy reading all the past posts and I see similar things brought up. So I thought I'd share my experiences from this fall as a way of bringing it all to home for newbies and to thank all you experienced folks and giving you guys something to laugh at. Ah a newbie who thinks!!!! she knows what is happening!
1) I read all over the posts that each situation is unique - that means things that work one year - may not work the following year - so read, read, read and be flexible. Each doe is different, each buck is different, and you can be alert or NOT - but you have the tools of this list to get you ready!
2) Watching friends and having my own does to learn from - I think that it is really hard to catch a doe in that perfect standing heat. Some seem to be in standing heat when they are quiet, others when they are loud. My friend had me rush my buck over when she thought the doe was ready and I'm guessing the standing heat had passed during the night. That doe was mean to the buck! Poor guy but I HOPE I'm wrong and somewhere - the deed was done. I think her standing heat was during minimal noises.
So what worked for me with MY does was starting 4 months before I wanted to breed - watching for any heat signs and recording this on the calendar. Now none of my girls were the perfect 21 days apart - most were 22 in the beginning and as the season got closer - 19 days but it was CLEAR when they were in deep heat (not necessarily standing) and that made it easy to record. How could anyone miss the noises, the tail and the does separating from the games of playing, running and eating. Once I had all 6 girls recorded (only 3 this year to breed) - then I watched and recorded each consecutive heat.
3) I had my own bucks and they were right within 100 feet of the girls. Thus - it was pretty easy to see when a doe was interested as like people have said - they'd go stand by the pen.
BUT - each doe was different in reaction to the buck. My queen was a bitch - she would stand, deed done, hunching going on and then she'd bash him and chase him around. Then 15 minutes later - she'd be flirting, stand, hunch and bash. NASTY - but somehow she is still my love. She never wanted him IN her barn - ever.
I had read that it is wise to breed the queen first. My friends didn't and the queen was forever aggressive toward the other does babies. Maybe that is just personality but to hedge my bets - I made sure the queen was bred first.
My other girls were in love with their bucks - sleep together, mate, eat together, nibble each other - until heat was done. They were in love even when out of standing heat but still "hot". When the girl started to run from the buck - I knew it was time for poor buck to go back to the prison.
I have a 3 acre goat field, a buck pen with shed and girl barn. I kept all the girls in the girl barn while buck and lover were out in the field cavorting. At night - they went into the buck pen/shed except for queen bitchy who clearly wasn't interested in anything but get the deed done in the daylight. I removed the 2nd buck to a nearby horse farm with his own wether friend so things were peaceful.
We were lucky to have everyone become pregnant on the first attempt.
NOTES:
Pen breeding is to me super easy IF you have the calendar ready and you know just about when the girl is in heat. Just going to feed the goats 2x a day gives you this information so you don't need to be around them all day.
You might not know if due date is April 14 or 15 but since your doe was just beginning to be in heat based upon her behavior, the wethers behavior, other girls behaviors - you know within 2 days when breeding will be. The heats (thank goodness) do not last very long.
Then you just look at the fancy helpful gestational calendar and have an approximate time to mark down - approximate because no one really can tell you what exact day as it is weather dependent as well as individual goat.
Next year I dread the whole affair as I won't have a buck handy. So I'm pondering now what arrangement I could do. We'll see!
Last note! And note well....smile. 7 years ago I got 10 pregnant sheep to start my sheep farm with a friend. We assumed (!!!) that the breeder would tell us when they were due. She said on the phone when we called - well - I keep the ram in with them so they could have babies anywhere between January 1 and May 30. WHAT a nightmare. We hardly had seen a sheep before and now we had to figure out who was pregnant, what it looked like when they were getting close and when they were lambing. AND if everything was OK. 10 of 10 were pregnant - 10 moms gave us 13 babies - all survived. 8 were experienced moms and 2 were first timers who both twinned. We had the vet twice - both times not needed but made us feel better. Once I had to turn a baby and it worked. It was un-nerving, exhausting and we've NEVER lambed again and won't.
But if we wanted to - we'd know when the ram was in with the girls, he'd have a chalk harness on and we'd change that chalk weekly. It would be relatively simple except sheep aren't guaranteed easy lambers.
I'll tell you - goats make it super super easy. You know when they are in heat unless they are totally silent girls and then maybe they need a little nutritional help as I don't think totally silent heats in a goat mean healthy goats. Goats are easy to handle. And you can be involved as much or as little as you want.
The only part that made me exhausted this year was keeping my bucks happy and OK and making sure there were no oopsies.
I never could have done it without kind people like yourselves sharing. Now for the first lambing - I've read all the comments everywhere about pens and now need to fit it to my farm. How exciting!
Judy with 6 does and now 4 wethers - to be town lawn mowers!
Replies
LOL! Love it! Thanks for taking the time to write this and share everything!
If you ever think you might want sheep again, try Shetlands. They are super easy lambers! In 11 years, we've only had to pull one lamb (first freshener, huge single lamb), and we've only had one ewe ever reject a lamb (again first freshener). They usually twin and have 100% survival almost every single year. They lamb in the pasture. I've only even seen a couple of them give birth, and we have at least a dozen lambs every year.
I meant first kidding!!!!!