# Buck brings does into heat?



## lilaalil (Sep 5, 2014)

If you don't want to read a whole story, my question is, can a smelly buck bring a doe, not otherwise in heat, into heat within a day?

If you want a story, here it is....

So, I had borrowed a lovely polled buck to breed my two does. He stayed with them for 2 months, and I strongly believe he bred one of the does back in November, but for whatever reason, my second doe never showed any signs of heat or being bred the whole time he was here. She did have an issue with her back hoof for a good amount of his visit, so that could have had something to do with it. As soon as her hoof recovered, she did look like she might be going into heat (vulva looked a bit puffy and pink) but never showed signs of being bred, so I brought the buck home a week later. 

Recently, I ran into another goat friend who I had lost contact with, and she reminded me that she "owed" me a free visit from her buck (a deal on buying a kid from her that got complicated), so I said, what the heck, lets bring him over and see what happens. So I pick him up yesterday, about 11am.

Well, this guy is a BUCK. The polled guy I borrowed before is still on the young side (10 months, I believe, when I had him, but he already has quite a few confirmed pregnancies under his belt) and only smelled bucky up close. I think that is also a common polled trait. This new guy is 3-4 years old and you can smell him from all the way across the yard, and as soon as he sees the girls, he is after them, tongue out, drinking pee (his pee, their pee, everyone's pee), all the other gross things bucks do. He is immediately far more interested in my unbbred doe, though he is not above sniffing and pee-drinking from my hopefully preggo one. He never tries to mount her, like he does my unbred one. 

Both does want nothing to do with him at first; they run like crazy. When he finally stops chasing them and everyone is eating (if a bit warily on the does' part) I go home. My mom checked on them a few hours later, and said that he was now nuzzling and licking my unbred doe, and that she seemed to be enjoying it at that point. I come back in the evening, and the underside of her tail is all wet and stuck together. So either she was already in heat, came into heat, or he just wore her down. Wondering which it is. Her vulva had looked puffy, on and off for the last week or so, but really, I thought her heat was over and I brought him to try and catch the next one. Only reason I got him so soon is my friend kinda wanted him out of her hair sooner rather than later 

Funny thing is, I had borrowed this same buck about a year and a half ago for 2 different does (now gone). He bred them both within an hour of being there. I had not been tracking heat, but I thought this was a pretty big coincidence. Also, neither of them actually got pregnant from that encounter. I thought the job was done, so I only kept him a few days that time. Is he just the kind of guy the girls can't resist, heat or no. Does that happen?


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## ShireRidgeFarm (Sep 24, 2015)

I don't have any good 'scientific resources' or anything, but I really think that a smelly buck could bring a doe into heat. 

The doe's heat cycle is often effected by the presence of a buck. Before I owned a buck my girls really didn't go into heat, but now I've seen even a 5 month old doeling being noisy and flagging her tail. It may be possible I didn't know what a heat cycle really looked like before I had a buck, but I know my does are way more noisy in heat if there's a buck to flirt with.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You may want to pull blood and send in for pregnancy test. A buck is not going to bring them in heat in 1 day.


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

ksalvagno said:


> You may want to pull blood and send in for pregnancy test. A buck is not going to bring them in heat in 1 day.


I disagree. My first year of goating, I had gathered up about 7 does from various sources, but didn't have a buck. I wanted to AI my does and had a friend who was going to AI them. It was October and I had not seen my does act in heat at all. I tried the buck rag thing and that was just weird. I knew just enough to know I needed a buck around to act as the teaser. I borrowed a stinky young buck from a friend. Literally, 24 hours later all but one was in heat. The one came in the next day. Also of note, about half of these does had another heat 3-5 days later.

That was October though. Prime breeding season. There is zero doubt the buck brought them in. January is still sort of breeding season. Since there is no buck around most of the time, I do think the stinky manly buck brought the unbred doe into heat for Lilaalil.


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## Buck Naked Boers (Oct 15, 2012)

I have two wethers and my girls go into heat pretty regularly. 

I've had two of my girls with a buck for two wks and no heats yet. Weird! Haven't had issue like this before. I'm wondering if it's the weird weather this year. We got tons of snow and been cold then warmer. Cold then warmer. It's weird. 

But my girls don't go into heat in 1 day. That's our experience anyway. Good luck!


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## lilaalil (Sep 5, 2014)

ShireRidgeFarm said:


> I don't have any good 'scientific resources' or anything, but I really think that a smelly buck could bring a doe into heat.
> 
> The doe's heat cycle is often effected by the presence of a buck. Before I owned a buck my girls really didn't go into heat, but now I've seen even a 5 month old doeling being noisy and flagging her tail. It may be possible I didn't know what a heat cycle really looked like before I had a buck, but I know my does are way more noisy in heat if there's a buck to flirt with.


Thanks, yeah, I have never had my own buck, and my does' heats are almost undetectable. The only sign is if I look under their tail, and even is not really a strong sign. Definitely no hollering, noticable flagging, mounting eachother, stuff like that. Then when I have borrowed a buck, he's gone straight into the pen with them, so the sign I look for is him paying attention to them/ breeding.


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## lilaalil (Sep 5, 2014)

ksalvagno said:


> You may want to pull blood and send in for pregnancy test. A buck is not going to bring them in heat in 1 day.


Thank you. Do you think they might both be pregnant and it's the pregnancy hormones that he is attracted to? It's a bit early to test my "unbred" doe, as the first buck just left at the end of December, but I may go ahead and test the supposedly pregnant one. I could test them both together in about a week. Would it do them or their pregnancies harm if he is trying to breed them when they are already pregnant?


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## lilaalil (Sep 5, 2014)

Tenacross said:


> I disagree. My first year of goating, I had gathered up about 7 does from various sources, but didn't have a buck. I wanted to AI my does and had a friend who was going to AI them. It was October and I had not seen my does act in heat at all. I tried the buck rag thing and that was just weird. I knew just enough to know I needed a buck around to act as the teaser. I borrowed a stinky young buck from a friend. Literally, 24 hours later all but one was in heat. The one came in the next day. Also of note, about half of these does had another heat 3-5 days later.
> 
> That was October though. Prime breeding season. There is zero doubt the buck brought them in. January is still sort of breeding season. Since there is no buck around most of the time, I do think the stinky manly buck brought the unbred doe into heat for Lilaalil.


That is interesting. I've heard of the "buck effect" before, where the presence of a buck will bring does into heat in about 10 days, if they haven't been around one in a while. But this was less than one day. Mine are 3/4 Nubian, and we live in Hawaii, so seasonal rules may be a bit less important here.


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## lilaalil (Sep 5, 2014)

Buck Naked Boers said:


> I have two wethers and my girls go into heat pretty regularly.
> 
> I've had two of my girls with a buck for two wks and no heats yet. Weird! Haven't had issue like this before. I'm wondering if it's the weird weather this year. We got tons of snow and been cold then warmer. Cold then warmer. It's weird.
> 
> But my girls don't go into heat in 1 day. That's our experience anyway. Good luck!


Nothing but weird weather here in Hawaii  It gets a bit cooler in the winter, but the last few weeks have been sunny and rather hot!


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

I am not a scientist but this is my experience. 
I keep a buck. My neighbor did not.
When her doe would not come into heat her breeder asked her if she knew someone with a buck. She brought her doe over to us and paraded her girl in front of our guy who peed and blubbered and rubbed the fence. She took her doe home and soon she came into heat and was successfully bred.


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

Buck Naked Boers said:


> I have two wethers and my girls go into heat pretty regularly. I've had two of my girls with a buck for two wks and no heats yet. Weird! Haven't had issue like this before. I'm wondering if it's the weird weather this year. We got tons of snow and been cold then warmer. Cold then warmer. It's weird. But my girls don't go into heat in 1 day. That's our experience anyway. Good luck!


Do you have any buck on your property? The phenomenon that several of us are talking about only occurs when there is no buck whatsoever on the property and then a buck is suddenly introduced. Your wethers may or may not disqualify you from the phenomenon if you don't have a buck. In my experience and from what I've read, the weather doesn't have as much to do with things as the length of daylight. But I feel like extreme hot or cold weather can knock them off. Especially very early or very late in the breeding season.


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