[nihicib2]

Hi all,

Once again Im turning to ye more knowledgable folk for some advice, our Nubian Madge had a lovely wee buck about three months ago, we named him Ruairi, my dilemma is that I want to keep him for mating with my other goats next year, (obviously not with his mum  ) but I'm wondering if he will be lonely if we keep him on his own, or at least apart from the others. I have three young females (under a year) that I dont want to get in kid until late next year and hopefully all my older females are in kid already (to be scanned in two weeks) and Im not going to get his mother in kid until near the end of the mating season.  I cant run him with the young ones as he's getting a bit frisky, I want to keep him away from his mother as he really needs to be weaned properly (I had him weaned  and was milking her but we wormed her so put him back on her to keep the milk up) and Im afraid if I put him in with the other females they'll beat him up, so will he be ok on his own? he would be penned beside the others, but would this be unfair on him?  Hope all that made sense and thanks in advance for any advice 

Bríd 

[little blue]

in the wild, the bucks would be alone or in small bachelor groups til the mating season
Could you get him a castrate companion, even if he is alone until the girls have kidded... hoping one has a boy!
If he is sight and sound of others then thats ok, but he'd prefer a buddy I'm sure   

[Hopewell]

In groups of feral goats that have been studied in the wild the male kids stay with their mother and the female group until she drives him away. This would be unlikely to have occurred at 3 months of age. It often a good idea to let any potential breeding male to have milk for longer than you would probably have allowed his sisters - certainly if they are being bottle fed.