First of all congratulations on the new bundle of joy! 😀

Once the baby is born and all is fine, there is one thing to consider. Will you turn the buck into a wether or not?

Why is this important? Well, bucks are able to reproduce at the age of 7 weeks. 7 WEEKS! Those weeks are going to by fast!

Our first cute little buck, Eggnog! Unfortunately he broke his leg.

If you decide not to make your buck a wether, he’s going to need a pen to himself and a buddy to go with him. By him being in his own pen, this eliminates him getting the does pregnant. Now, there are people that do keep bucks together but it really depends on the bucks’ personalities and if the pen is far from the does. Housing bucks together is risky as they can injure one another, especially if they have horns. If you decide to house more than one intact buck together just keep an eye on them! 😉

Turning a buck into a wether is what a lot of people do. Wethers are great as pets and companions for other goats and livestock. Wethers won’t become all stinky like the bucks and won’t develop the aggressive behavior. My buck, BB8, is super sweet but he has his moments of head butting, pushing especially when we have grain! He also likes to pee on himself 🤢 to impress the ladies so he doesn’t get petted too often .

Making a buck into a wether is super easy but it’s intimidating especially if you haven’t done it before! I know I was when we made Eggnog into a wether.

There are two methods: burdizzo castrator and banding with an elastrator. The burdizzo castrator is where you take the tool and crush the spermatic cords. Banding with an elastrator is just putting a band on the scrotum, eliminating blood flow so the sac falls off.

I have seen some people say that the castrator is the best, humane procedure but I think banding is. It really depends on the person.

Eggnog was our first goat to band. It was super easy and he didn’t fuss after getting the band put on.

Like I mentioned before, once the band is on, the scrotum will shrink and wither away after several weeks. Usually 8 weeks is the recommended age to castrate the goat. For us, since our buck had broke his leg, we banded him at 9 weeks.

Check out our video below: I talk more about the elastrator and show us banding Eggnog.