The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Other => Topic started by: Roxy on September 06, 2009, 11:43:17 pm
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Paddy the billy goat, that is. My OH is grumbling that the smell is on his hands and clothes. I have told him he will get used to it, but my friend pointed out that he will have no friends once they smell it. I have not told him this bit!!! I put Paddy out for a while this afternoon, and every now and again the wind wafted the billy goat smell up the field.
Paddy keeps coming to me for a fuss, and I dare not stroke him, but do talk to him. Its not his fault, he does not understand that the smell is not attractive to us humans.
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Well, if ever I had any thoughts of getting a billy goat to eat my front grass as has been suggested to me, they have gone straight out the window. I have enough of a problem with smelly ducks and chickens. Poor Paddy, nobody loves him enough to give him a cuddle and accept him for what he is - a smelly old goat (http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Animals/0117.gif)
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Annie get him castrated and there will be no smell at all. All my boys are "done" and you know they aren't wiffy. :goat:
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Both our pet goats (Jake & Kenco) were castrated at birth, so neither smell...at least I haven't noticed any...maybe that's why I don't have any friends!
Farmer :o
:farmer:
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We've had a lamb castrated as a companion for our tup lamb and it only cost £10, so it's not prohibitively expensive.
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My two Anglo Nubian boys are castrated, as is the pet shetland sheep. No smell at all from those, so castrated goats are absolutely fine, and usually even tempered.
I have got Paddy to get me back into goat breeding again. Its a shame for entire billies ......people pass they on when they realise about the smell. I am getting used to it again now - but got a few more months of the breeding season to suffer the smell yet. Its not too bad when he is outside though.
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Poor old Paddy... at least your goaty girl will find him attractive!
(be just your luck to put with the smell, then find he's not her type!!)
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I have two entire billies who are reeking right now!
It's fine until you touch one of them and you stink all day!!
It puts off the city walkers going past them!!
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My friend is a nurse, and she has just emailed me to say she has treated a lady today, who had been butted by her billy goat. Friend says she stunk the place out with the billy goat smell. She then said she nearly offered to rehome the goat with her Northern friend (me). So I said would she be kind enough to deliver it to me in her car!!!
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its that time of year hes is trying to attract the girls it only lasts 6 months a year (or there abouts) my mum has 3 stud males they stink but the girls love them. belive it or not some breeders will rub their male goat ( head ) with a cloth and hang the cloth in the female shed it then brings on an early season thus nice early kids. but if you dont want to breed with him best say good by to his bits! och
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No, not cutting his bits off .....got him to breed with!! I have always had British Alpines, Toggenburgs and British Sannans. The problem is round here finding a stud billy - hardly anyone keeps a goat, let alone a billy. I have struggled in the past to find a billy to mate with my nannies. So, I thought I would take the plunge and get my own.
We are just in the process of sorting out Billy a nice place of his own. Will have to be strong, as he keeps headbutting the door - going to put a sheet of steel, like you find in horse stables, against the door, otherwise he will break the dioor in two with those horns.
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its that time of year hes is trying to attract the girls it only lasts 6 months a year (or there abouts) my mum has 3 stud males they stink but the girls love them. belive it or not some breeders will rub their male goat ( head ) with a cloth and hang the cloth in the female shed it then brings on an early season thus nice early kids. but if you dont want to breed with him best say good by to his bits! och
Ahh a billy rag! Or you can keep it in a jam jar, and get it out if you think a goat might be season. One sniff of the billy rag and you will know if they definitely are in season or not!
Beth
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sound like male pig smell also
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:pig:no male pigs smell lovely compared to a male goat in the autumn/winter once smelt never forgotten :)
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Having two entire billy goats, I now have twice the smell ......just about getting used to it again now. Was going out for lunch with a friend today (a rare treat for me!) so very carefully fed both billies, and then got changed and stayed away. My friend arrived, wanted to see the billies, but warned her no matter how friendly they were, she must not go near the pens, nor touch them!! One billy in particular is very friendly, and obviously is immune to how much he smells .....
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This is going to sound really naive, but which bit of the goat is it that smells so bad? (I take it it's not the bits the vet cuts off!?) Also, how does he know when it's time to start ponging for the ladies? :bouquet: :goat: :love:
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He has special glands on his head and neck
And sprays his beard and legs with urine. Nice! (if you're a goat)
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Yes, little blue is correct. I caught the big billy peeing into his mouth, and then he rubbed his body with the pee ......between his horns definitely is where the smell is worst. Its hard to describe the smell, and goodness knows why it attracts the ladies (if indeed it does). Once the breeding season is over in the Spring, the smell will die down until Autumn.
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Roxy, hope your billies are in the field furthest away from, well, anywhere!! Except the nannies of course.
Womble, I imagine the change in day length and temperature that tells a billy when to 'smell' as thats when the kids become fully weaned and the nanny receptive again, in the autumn.
Just like birds go off lay.... and I struggle to get out of bed in the morning!