Ooooh yes, goats. How I love thee! =)

So this newbie completely, 100% misunderstood goats’ breeding seasons. Turns out, they are seasonal, but there is only about 24-36 hour of time to get them bred! And since we don’t keep our own buck, and were planning to take our girls to be “serviced” by a buck, nailing down that day was hard!

We instead were able to borrow a buck to show us when they were in heat. We thought he wouldn’t be big enough to breed them … we were wrong! Haha Winston definitely bred 1 girl, and I *think* bred the other; we will have tests done to check if it took in a few weeks.

Wendy Woo (the one I’m not certain was bred … she didn’t want to stand for Winston) giving snuggies

Signs a Nubian Doe is in Heat

• lots of tail flagging- this can be hard, because my girls already flag when they see me, and rub up against me. But it definitely increases during heat.
• sticky/wet under tail- there will be evidence of sticky/creamy discharge under their tails, from ovulation (much like human female’s cycle when preparing to get pregnant)
• swollen- under their tails, their vulva will go from regular sized (pay attention before season hits to what it normally looks like, take pics if you need to!) to swollen. It will be a very distinct difference from one to the other
• dominant behavior- OH YEA! if you have 2+ does they will definitely start showing dominant behavior. I *think* when Wendy was in heat, Lucy was mounting her. When Lucy was in heat, the girls were head butting, fighting/playing rough, and in general being snarky… and I do mean, snarky with each other
• buck rag- if all else fails, find a buck, rub a rag on him (get lots of stinky on it), and then put it in a covered container in the barn with your does. When they start going crazy over that rag, trying to get to it, you have heat!

Everything I’ve read about does and bucks during season was definitely true!

• Those boys go stupid! I mean, they’re ridiculous, funny, sweet, they really do try to persuade the lady!
• Depending on your doe, there will be flirting. Lucy was all about some flirting-flagging, rubbing, waving her tail right in his face, prancing around like she was queen, then finally standing so he could breed her.
• You may need to help out =/ Wendy did NOT want to stand- Usually the doe will give the buck a run for his money, fussing, running, head butting, running away … but after a bit she stands for him. Not Wendy! So after the first afternoon of no bueno, I *did* hold her the following day so he could breed her. We will see if that took? One of my goat mentors told me (and shared video) that sometimes, does just don’t like the buck, and you have to help some.

I can’t wait to test for pregnancy and find out if we will have goat kids this year!

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