Our R-rated Buck

Here at the farm, breeding season is just around the corner.  It seems the girls are already in heat, so we could have already begun, but the "catastrophic" winter the Farmer's Almanac is predicting has me putting on the brakes.  With a 5 month gestation period, our goats who breed now would be delivering mid-February.  That sounds like a cold time to be delivering wee ones.  Early March sounds a whole lot better to me.  

Meanwhile, our buck Oreo is clearly in rut.  He's packed on the pounds, begun growing a beard, and, ummm, he's doing some other "rutty" things.  He is currently separated from the ladies by only a fence and is finding the situation quite frustrating.    

It's pretty bad.  He's stinky.  He's disgusting.  He's doing things to the ladies THROUGH THE FENCE that are completely R-rated. I won't give you all the horrific details, but just let me say that Girl 1 wanted to know the other day why Oreo is trying to "bite the girls' tails through the fence."  

I've been steering clear of the buck pen myself for the most part.  I've observed Oreo's antics from the safety of the barn, and I've been feeding and watering him through the fence.  Today, though, I needed to give him and the other fellas their vitamins.  To do this, I needed to straddle each goat, hold his mouth open, and shove it in.  Usually this is a simple enough process.  But, today.  Ummm.  I'm usually pretty open with you guys, but I am too much of a lady to discuss what went on in that pen today while I was in there.  I'm blushing a bit just thinking of it and am THROUGH with visiting that pen for awhile.  I'll allow my farm help (John) to take care of any other visits in there.  

During this time, when I find our buck so disgusting, I try to remind myself that a goat farm without a buck is a goat farm without those precious babies!  And, with 5 ladies ready to breed this year, we could be looking at as many as 10 or so little ones come spring.  Here's hoping that all of Oreo's ridiculous antics mean he'll be ready to get the job done when he's released into the ladies' field in a couple of weeks!