My husband wants to keep the bucks....BUT

[Georgiamainers]

I don't think he realizes WHAT we're getting ourselves into. We bought two lovely pregnant does - a sanaan and a togg (breed to the same boer buck) and got three buck kids. De wants to breed these bucks to their non-mother. To me, it seems like a big pain to go to all that trouble- separating and building a shelter for bucks. I would if we had purebred bucks. I don't really want a togg/sanaan/boer mix, do I? The original plan was to band them and butcher them this fall. Any advice? One buck will be 10 weeks this weekend so now is the time....

 

[carolinagirl]

you are better off getting rid of them and bringing in a single unrelated buck. Keeping two mature bucks to service two does is not a great idea, plus unless you can keep them a long way from the ladies, the milk will taste like bucks smell. NOT plesant at all!

 

[freemotion]

I keep a buck and I won't keep our babies. Too much trouble and too risky. I had one escape last winter which resulted in three does bred that I didn't want bred....fortunately, two of the older ones didn't get pregnant. The fence between them is now 8 feet tall. It really showed me that I really am not set up to keep anyone that I don't want bred to my buck.

You are going to have bucklings every year and you can't keep them all. It is tough but they gotta go! I decided to pull all the kids this year because I just get so attached and it really is turning out to be easier to send them to their new homes at 3-4 weeks old, on the bottle.

 

[elevan]

Stick with your original plan. Band them now and butcher them in the fall.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Keep one of them and in-breed one of the does, then just butcher all her kids that are inbred, and you can keep any doelings that the other doe has that aren't inbred. Having 2 or 3 bucks for 2 does is going to be a pain, and all your future kids will be related anyway, since all the bucks are from the same sire.

but if your plan was to have a certain breed, then even this will be a waste of time and money. If you just want a buck around to breed the girls and keep them in milk and get some meat, then it doesn't really matter if they are inbred, or if they are a mix of 3 breeds.

HOnestly if your plan is to butcher the kids, you would be better off getting a higher percentage boer buck for meatier kids in the future.

If you plan is to keep milking does from future breedings then you would be better off spending the time and money of a better milking buck with proven genetics for milking.