# Do bucks ALWAYS stink?



## Mini-M Ranch (Sep 16, 2009)

I mean, I know that every buck stinks.  Is it worse during rut, or is it always the same level of stinkiness?

I've got mini-nubian girls, and am not sure what to do about buck services.  At the farm where I got two of the girls, she has a buck that she is done using in her breeding routine.  She says she will give him to me to start our herd, as he is unrelated to any of my girls.

Thing is, when we were there to get our girls a few weeks ago, we could smell him when we got out of the car.  I mean he was ripe and smelling BAAAAAD!!!!  I don't find the smell that offensive, but I do have a close neighbor and don't want to stink them out.  So, I am wondering if he will perhaps not stink as bad after breeding season. 

 He is a very sweet boy, not aggressive at all and very people oriented.  He is also pretty ""typey" for an F2.  If we use him , that will give us F3 kids in the spring.


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## ThornyRidge (Sep 16, 2009)

<--me     you--> 

now how would you describe stink???  buck scent is an acquired smell.. one that I have become quite familiar with and tend to not notice as much anymore.  My bucks I guess you would say stink most of the time.. however they seem to be more "ripe" in the fall/now.  depending on how the wind blows I catch a "whiff"  .. I have 3 nigerian dwarf bucks.. and they can be stinky little boys!!!  I enjoy my bucks and they are verrrry friendly so again this scent is something I have just got used to.. sometimes I do have to wash my hands several times because just touching hay bags/buckets and such leaves the smell on ya!!!  If you have the set up/space and willingness to put up with some smell I would recommend as opposed to tracking down someone for driveway breedings that you have to time just right and then be leary of exposure to disease.


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## Roll farms (Sep 16, 2009)

We hardly notice Hurricane's "perfume" until about late July.  THEN he just flat out REEKS until November or so.
I haven't noticed our Boer boys smelling nearly as bad as the dairy bucks do...and good gravy, the Ob buck can knock you down from 20 paces.
In short, yes you can smell them up close year round, but the realllly rank time is fall.


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## SarahFair (Sep 17, 2009)

So what kind of smell is it? Like a wild smell or a pee smell?


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## Mini-M Ranch (Sep 17, 2009)

Maybe I would describe it as wild pee.  lol

Sort of smells like a combination between teenage boy dirty sweat socks, Fritos corn chips, and maybe a touch of rotten cheese.  

So I guess some smell worse than others, and some smell bad all the time and some only really horrible sometimes?  This doesn't seem helpful at all.  hahaha


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## SarahFair (Sep 17, 2009)

Mini-M Ranch said:
			
		

> Maybe I would describe it as wild pee.  lol
> 
> Sort of smells like a combination between teenage boy dirty sweat socks, Fritos corn chips, and maybe a touch of rotten cheese.
> 
> So I guess some smell worse than others, and some smell bad all the time and some only really horrible sometimes?  This doesn't seem helpful at all.  hahaha


That sounds AWFUL!
I think Ill just skip out on having a buck


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## cmjust0 (Sep 17, 2009)

SarahFair said:
			
		

> So what kind of smell is it? Like a wild smell or a pee smell?


They smell like someone rolled a dog turd in human hair and lit it on fire.


j/k..  

But they are gross, and yeah...I've noticed in my experience that nubian bucks tend to smell differently and more and worse than boer bucks.  Not that a boer buck doesn't stink...they do...it just seems to be a somewhat less obnoxious smell, and there's less of it than dairy breeds.  Personally, I think it has to do with the laid-back, somewhat passive nature of most boers versus the LET'S GET IT ON *NOW!* attitude of the nubian bucks I've been around..  The nubians tend to be very, very, very, very proactive about trying to make themselves stink _really_ bad -- especially if they're across a fence from the gals. 

Total speculation, though.

By far, the stinkin'est buck I've ever been around was a vasectomized Nigerian Dwarf teaser..


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## trestlecreek (Sep 17, 2009)

The smell does get stronger when they are in rut, but IMO, they do smell year round. If you pet one, you will come back to your house with the smell on your hands no matter what time of year it is,..LOL
You can bathe them though in the spring and late summer. It also depends on where you house them. My bucks are not real close to my house, so I never get a whiff of them, even in rut.
My husband wanted to move the pastures around and decided the bucks could come up here by the house!  I reminded him that it would be fine with me, but ya know,.....don't forget, you would be smelling them everyday as you leave the house!!! LOL!!!
They are still in the back 40,... That move hasn't happened.


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## cmjust0 (Sep 17, 2009)

We bought a buck from some folks once who had something like 50 acres, yet everything they owned was fenced to within about 50' of their house..._everything_.  

We bought the buck as a "young man," and it was late fall, so he was in full rut..  He was extra-reeky because he was in a pen with like four other bucks, and they were directly across a woven wire fence from probably a dozen or more does, many of which were obviously in heat.  

...and this is all happening RIGHT OUTSIDE THEIR FRONT DOOR.

You could smell the bucks from the time you opened the car door in their driveway and I'm thinking...how in the world would you keep that smell from permeating your house, your furniture, your carpet, the clothes in your closets, your car's upholstry..everything you owned!?!?  We're talking upper 20's on the "hobo power" scale, standing on their front stoop...50 being vomit-inducing, 100 being death by _voluntary_ asphyxia.

Answer -- it's impossible.  You can't keep it out of your home...not with that level of stenchola so close..  I know, because I stepped inside the house.

 

Perhaps the worst part was that the lady worked in an office!!!  There's not a doubt in my mind that she came strolling in to work perfumed with "Eau de Chevre Pissent" every morning.

Can you even imagine?!?  

I can't...I just couldn't live like that.


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## trestlecreek (Sep 17, 2009)

Well, we don't have dogs or cats in our house either..... we're pretty sensitive to smell/hair around here....
Maybe their noses don't work? Some people do not smell real well?


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## cmjust0 (Sep 17, 2009)

Guilty as charged on dogs and cats...  Our 1100sqft houses five dogs, four cats, and two humans.  Stacked pretty deep.  Pet hair is practically a condiment at our house.

Some people can't imagine living like that -- and I totally understand that sometimes  -- but...well, it must be worth it somehow...I suppose.

Probably best if I don't ponder that too much and just pretend like it's fact.


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## crazygoatlady (Sep 17, 2009)

how bad so some bucks smell?    LOL   We brought a buck in for breeding years ago and my DIL didn't believe that a buck could smell--well we knew they smell--ours only smell when the girls are in heat.   my DIL got a whiff and started to puke, she was pregnant, but hadn't had any issues at all.   How bad can they smell ?   LOL  When my brother had pygmies and the buck rubbed on him, my SIL made him change his clothes outside and BURNED his clothes.    We have been lucky, our bucks smell, but we don't mind-maybe cause we are used to it or maybe cause we know if we don't have bucks that smell, we won't have bred does.  yeah we can smell him in the house if the wind is jsut right but  It is just a fact of life, literally


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## SarahFair (Sep 17, 2009)

Blah! Do goat breeders participate in AI? lol


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## trestlecreek (Sep 17, 2009)

Yep, some do utilize AI, but usually it is for genetics.....

They do smell, but not that bad. You would have to have one living on your back porch or play with him physically everyday to be bothered horribly. I pet and play with mine every now and then and I talk to them at each feeding. Mine are sweeties even though they do stink,..LOL. I have coveralls I wear when I know I will be giving IM shots or playing. If I forget, I just change my pants immediately and start them on soak.
I have learned to give sq vaccines without contact and am able to grab a buck to use on a lead for breeding without having to get it on my clothes...
After petting or grabbing, I have to wash my hands 5 times with different soaps, but it does come off.....


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## SarahFair (Sep 17, 2009)

trestlecreek said:
			
		

> Yep, some do utilize AI, but usually it is for genetics.....
> 
> They do smell, but not that bad. You would have to have one living on your back porch or play with him physically everyday to be bothered horribly. I pet and play with mine every now and then and I talk to them at each feeding. Mine are sweeties even though they do stink,..LOL. I have coveralls I wear when I know I will be giving IM shots or playing. If I forget, I just change my pants immediately and start them on soak.
> I have learned to give sq vaccines without contact and am able to grab a buck to use on a lead for breeding without having to get it on my clothes...
> After petting or grabbing, I have to wash my hands 5 times with different soaps, but it does come off.....


Have you ever tried using lemon or vinigar?


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## trestlecreek (Sep 17, 2009)

No, I never made that big of a deal over it, I just keep washing until the smell is gone. If comes off....


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## ksalvagno (Sep 17, 2009)

I thought I was bad with 5 dogs, 3 cats and 4 rabbits in a 1600 square foot home! I'm glad I'm not the only animal nut here! I'm a sucker for rescues! 

By the way, isn't that why it is called "fur"niture?


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## cmjust0 (Sep 17, 2009)

ksalvagno said:
			
		

> I thought I was bad with 5 dogs, 3 cats and 4 rabbits in a 1600 square foot home! I'm glad I'm not the only animal nut here! I'm a sucker for rescues!


Speaking of rescues and charity cases...out of our animals:

1 Border Collie, from the humane society.
1 Lab mix, also from the humane society...same day.
1 Feist dog, showed up on the front porch hungry with bloody feet.
1 Border Collie, picked up off the side of the road
1 White GSD, part of an accidental litter (not by us!)...has a congenital defect called megaesophagus, very special care required.
1 Sarplaninac LGD, free, because he was already 6mo and snappy with strangers (which we were, but we took him anyway)
1 DSH cat, wife 'rescued' him from a dopey friend of hers as a kitten
1 DSH cat, wandered into my garage as a kitten
1 Himalyan cat, wife purchased from a horrible breeder who's kid stomped at it until it was half nuts
1 Himalayan cat, given to my wife by same horrible breeder because said breeder just didn't have the time to deal with all the cats she was breeding...and because my wife knew the kind of situation the poor cat was probably in
3 goats, two nubi does and a boer doe, purchased on the cheap from family because they were moving to town and couldn't take them

...and then a whole bunch more goats which are afforded WAY more care (and subsequent $$$) than most sane folks would give a goat...



			
				ksal said:
			
		

> By the way, isn't that why it is called "fur"niture?


Why, yes, I think you're right.  If it were meant only for humans, they'd have called it skiniture.


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## Mini-M Ranch (Sep 17, 2009)

SO, you guys don't think the lilac fence would work??


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## crazygoatlady (Sep 17, 2009)

no--lemon or vingar doesn't work with our bucks--although our goats milk soap does do a pretty good job-- we tell people that if someone tells you that you smell like a billy goat ( my dad used to say that so and so smelled like an old billy goat, we had no idea what he meant, now we do)--you better go home, strip off, maybe burn your clothes and scrub yourself really hard


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## Rockytopsis (Sep 18, 2009)

Mini-M Ranch said:
			
		

> Maybe I would describe it as wild pee.  lol
> 
> Sort of smells like a combination between teenage boy dirty sweat socks, Fritos corn chips, and maybe a touch of rotten cheese.


LOL I may never eat Fritos again but you have it nailed.


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## cmjust0 (Sep 18, 2009)

The pads of a dog's paws and Fritos corn chips -- exactly the same smell.

Seriously.

Sniff for yourself if you don't believe me.  My wife told me that and didn't believe her...but she's right...they really do smell exactly like Frito's corn chips.

I have NO CLUE how she figured that out, so don't ask.


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## ksalvagno (Sep 18, 2009)

When alpacas get wet from the rain, they smell like Fritos too!


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## cmjust0 (Sep 18, 2009)

We're not alone.


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## Mini-M Ranch (Sep 18, 2009)

cmjust0 said:
			
		

> We're not alone.
> 
> http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/745_fritos.jpg


     

I refuse to eat corn chips after we went on vacation once and had a leak under our sink.  When we got back, the whole bathroom REEKED of Fritos from damp, half soured towels.  

My very first thought was "Whoa! Why does it smell like Fritos in here?"  Hubby said, "OOOh, gross, it does smell like Fritos."  Now whenever we pass them at the store, we both just look at that yellow bag and shake our heads.


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## cmjust0 (Sep 18, 2009)

If you go to google and type in "my dog smells like " it pops up "...corn chips" at #2 and "...fritos" at #5.

I gotta tell ya...I  google.

Go type in "I am extremely " and look at what comes up.


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## Aped (Sep 18, 2009)

I would say my dogs' feet smell like popcorn and also people's feet and also movie theaters which  is why I don't eat popcorn. I guess this post got a little off topic...


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