# Nigerian Dwarfs~pasture breeding vs. hand breeding



## Sonrise Farm (Sep 18, 2008)

Do you prefer pasture breeding or hand breeding? I personally don't like running the buck in the same pen as ALL my does . . .and I like to be there on hand when he does his earthly duty . . .but you can't always know when she is just right. This year, because the gate on my other pen was broken, I had to run the buck in with my does and he just totally made a mess of everything---because I couldn't enter the pen (he was a big ole mean nubian buck) I had to throw the hay over the fence instead of putting it in their feeder, and so the hay made a big mess. I prefer hand breeding for three reasons: #1, safer #2 you actually know when the doe was bred! :ROFL: and #3 Convenient . . .you just chaperone the buck and doe while they do their thing . . .but your side please~!


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

I definately prefer hand breeding rather than pasture...although pasture is way easier and hand breeding is extremely time consuming. But that way you can be sure of the due date. I hand bred most my does this year, but due to lack of time and the rest left to be bred are extremely hard to detect in heat....I turned my some of my bucks with the does so we'll see how this goes. I will remove them end of December and that will be it. I haven't really done it that way before so ??? We'll see!


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## Amy Goatress (Oct 2, 2008)

We do pasture breeding but it is more like pen breeding rather than pasture breeding but we did do pasture breeding when we raised Shetland sheep but pen/pasture breeding works better for us though since we don't have much time for hand breeding with our schedule but we're not breeding right now though.


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I prefer the hand breeding....knowing the who and when eases my mind a good bit...especially being sure of due dates!


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

We do kind of both. I like letting our buck live with the does but not all of them at once. He is much happier when living with them, not so stinky too! 

If we happen to catch a doe when she is in heat, we put her in with the buck for a couple days. Other than that, we watch closely and typically are able to watch the doe get bred and write down that date. We have had a few that we didn't see get bred though. . . .


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## Amy Goatress (Oct 2, 2008)

We haven't missed a due date yet with our pasture/pen breedings though!


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## mnspinner (Aug 13, 2008)

If you have a lot of does, hand breeding could be quite the challenge and probably impractical. Another advantage is the buck will have plenty of opportunity to cover the doe.
With my numbers I'm a hand breeder. I like to know the due dates, but more than that I can control the couplings better. Often with juniors or even the odd doe who decides she doesn't like to be bred, the breeding isn't complete. And the same goes for young bucks who you think are doing the job but on closer inspection they aren't sealing the deal. With hand breeding I can hold the doe in place and make sure a solid breeding takes place. Also with hand breeding I know when does might come into a secondary/backup heat and write down the dates. 
Also a buck with free access to does can often run them ragged.
But whatever works for you.


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

If our buck was not a "gentleman"  there is no way I'd let him run with the does. But he is very sweet and leaves them entirely alone when they are not in heat. When we had our pygmy buck he would have run does ragged so he never lived with them. Roy's not like that at all.


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## Di (Jan 29, 2008)

LOL well, considering my last experience...I'll not be pasture breeding anytime soon. I'm much happier knowing actual due dates, then "guesstimations". :shrug:


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## MissMM (Oct 22, 2007)

I'm trying to do the "hand breeding" theory, but my Sarah is the only one that showed obvious signs of 'standing heat.' I put her in with my new 9 mo. old Pygora Buck (Stinkybutt) hoping he'd be "up to the challenge." The poor guy tried and tried, but just couldn't get there. Sarah is a pretty big girl. I "supervised" as long as I could, but finally had to just leave her in the buck pen. When I checked back on her the next day, her hootinanny looked like Stinkybutt finally figured out how to get the job done. 

My other 2 does of breeding age aren't so obvious with their cycles. Since Stinkybutt doesn't appear to be ornery at all (I've only had him 6 weeks), I might just put the other 2 girls in with him for a month and hope that works.


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