# How do I get rid of buck smell? Help!



## dbarjacres (Feb 2, 2004)

My husband is ready to make me live in the barn! We've had goats for 2 years, but we've always had bucks under a year, so just an "annoying" smell, not to bad, washes right off hands, and I didn't handle them much at all. Well, last night we brought home our 2 new Nigerian bucks, a coming 3 and coming 2 y.o. Oh My Gosh are they RIPE! AND I have to handle these boys ALOT. We are in Northern Wisconsin, so it's very cold here right now, and I think the boys got stressed with hauling last night, so I'm gonna give them Probiotic paste, vit. B, and Goat Serum for 2 days (that's a lot of full body contact!), plus I will be handbreeding, and need to lead them to and from the girls, with one doeling ready now, (more contact with attaching lead to collar), and just even being by them, they are locked in a large stall in my donkey barn and the whole freaking barn stinks! I don't even know what to do with my barn clothes, it can't come in the house, but I can't keep it outside in 10 degree weather! I can't get the smell out of my hands either, I've scrubbed them raw with coffee goat soap, which I was told worked well.

How do you people manage your awfully smelly boys?


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## Eunice (Feb 9, 2005)

I understand. This is our fifth year with goats, but our first year with a mature buck. I think the stink is a fair trade for the music at all hours of the day and night from the housing unit across the street. My daughter refuses to even wear the jacket in which she handled Broken Arrow out to do chores before school, because she will stink all day long. We wash our hands and clothes and in time it goes away. The smell is not so strong now as it was when he first got here. The blessing is now that we have eight bred does - counting the one today.


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## bill not in oh (Jul 27, 2004)

Maybe those German Shepherds will help keep you warm out there at night... LOL


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## moonspinner (Jul 2, 2002)

Buck odor affects people differently. Maybe because you're not accustomed to it it seems especially pungent. I've had five ND bucks at one time (down to three now) and though I'm very aware of the smell, I'm not particularly bothered by it. It DOES get on your clothes though. This time of year you can really smell it. Come spring it should begin to taper off. Some individuals give off a stronger odor too than others. But the gals just love it!!


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## dbarjacres (Feb 2, 2004)

Bill - haha, thanks a lot! Darrin'll love that idea!

You bet the girls sure like that smell! There's a black tail out there just a waggin! The donkeys are wondering what the he!! it is, they've been standing on the farthest end or out in the snow all day! 

I've got a really good sense of smell, so I know that's why I can tell. Darrin has a really bad one (too many fumes and such being a mechanic), so I really think he imagines some of it. I wonder if it is different how it "penetrates" people's skin/hair too. I know when I worked on a dairy farm with my friend, she'd be able to just wet and style her hair, where'd I'd have to wash mine completely and still be able to smell cow on me.

I like the goaties, but the donkeys sure smell better!


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## AmazingAlpines (Oct 30, 2005)

As much as I love having my boys around, the smell can really get bad. I have special goat clothes and try to avoid lots of contact with the bucks when they really smell. I have my buck's feeders and waterers close to the fence so I don't have to enter the pens. 

As far as getting the smell of my hands, Caprine Supply has some Buck-Off soap which seems to work. 

Tori


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## Laura Workman (May 10, 2002)

I don't handle my bucks much during rut. When I do, I wash my clothes with Arm & Hammer detergent, which is the best thing I've found for odors. For my hands, I take a handful of coffee grounds (used ground work fine), dampen them if they're dry, and scrub my hands with them until the coffee oil is all over my hands. Then I wash thoroughly with a good, gentle handsoap. I like goat milk soap with lavender, but use what you like. The oil in the coffee seems to break up the buck scent material, and then it all washes off with the soap, leaving coffee-smelling hands.


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## Kshobbit (May 14, 2002)

Fabreeze or the new stuff Oust works pretty good. I have sprayed it on my dogs with no ill effects and I have sprayed it on myself. Good old lye soap will work too but it is very hard to find. Some bucks stink more than others


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## Rachel K. (Nov 9, 2005)

I'm going to be getting a Oberhasli Buckling next year. I'm hoping that since he will be a dairy breed I will only have to put up with the smell during late summer and fall when he goes into Rut.


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## apirlawz (Dec 26, 2003)

This might be a little "ot", but I do make a pretty nifty coffee soap that's good for this kind of thing. For me, it's mostly to deal with onion and garlic odors when cooking, but I'll be dealing with those stinky buggers in a year or so too... :stars: 

Now, to divulge some trade secrets...  

It's pretty easy for those of you who make CP soap. I substitute the liquid for a _very strong _ esspresso (or _thick_ coffee), then add fresh, finely ground coffee beans. These have to be fresh, not the ones you used to make your cofffee/esspresso/mud. I combine my coffee and lye just as you would water, no special considerations needed. It will smell like something out of a swamp, but like goatmilk soap, that stink will go a way. 

At a very thin trace, I add the ground coffee beans (abot 1/2 cup for a 7.5 lb batch) and keep mixing the stuff until it's at a fairly thick trace before pouring into the molds, to make sure it stays suspended nicely. Keep it in the mold for however long you normally do, cut, cure, and your ready for stinky bucks! 

I find that, although my base oils are the same as the others, this soap produces a lot more glycerine as a "by product". Messy as all heck, but wonderful for your skin...especially considering that the coffee grounds are scubbing the heck out of it! The scent is very "mocha-y", almost like a dark chocolate as it continues to cure. This is the one that I keep by all my sinks, and hubby the CPA with the nice, soft hands...LOL!... loves it for cleaning up after changing oil, etc. And, the vegetable vendors at my farmers' markets' love this one, too...great for bartering! :sing:


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## moonspinner (Jul 2, 2002)

Hobbit, that Febreeze stuff works great! It's one of the few products that can tackle cat urine which is the worst smell to get rid of.


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## Goat Freak (Jul 6, 2005)

I asked the same question before, and I got a lot of help. Here is the thread http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=101960. Hope this helps, bye.


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## kath2003 (Oct 3, 2003)

Dollar store toothpaste works great on your hands. The paste,not the gels!


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## debitaber (Jun 6, 2003)

I use odoban, best stuff in the world. just give a little spray on the clothes, or addd to washing machine. works like a charm. and you can spray your hands with one spray also. and will take the smell away. 
In the spring. give the bucks a bath. after the weather warms up, I always do. then they are nice boys in the summer, but watchout for fall. and rut season.


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## crazygoatgirl (Dec 6, 2004)

I have found 2 things that work well, one is Oxyclean for the clothes and you can even use it on your hands. Also any goatmilk soap that is made with licorice scent...it somehow gets rid of the buck smell.


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## Charleen (May 12, 2002)

The VERY BEST way to get rid of buck smell is to use a freezer  

We have 4 oberhasli boys out there creating their own little micro-climate of special eau de buck fragrances.

That buck urine & musk permeates everything! The musk is really an oil, so a degreaser is needed to get it out of your clothes. For hand soap, some people make a paste of baking soda, but I didn't really find that effective. I didn't think the Buck-Off bar worked all that well either. I make a bar soap that is scented with cinnamon that seems to help. The lingering buck odor is still there, it's faint, but now it's cinnamon flavored buck. Ripe Red Raspberry scent is pretty overpowering of the buck smell too.

We've just resigned ourselves to the fact that it happen this time of year.


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## chris30523 (Jun 11, 2005)

we have a couple of stinky boys also.They think they are beautiful with all that urine and their wonderful perfume.I have one that thinks that you should pet him on the head every time you are out.The musk smell is alkaline so anything acid should remove the smell kind of like skunk odor.I use a citrus dish soap.It is made to remove oil and the citrus cuts the musk.I also use oxy clean and have used a couple of drops of orange clean in the washer.I do think that the smell is more offensive to some.


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## goatkid (Nov 20, 2005)

I bought some soap called Buck Off from Caprine Supply. It has sort of a licorice scent and works great. I can handle my bucks and then go to work as a cashier afrer changing clothes and washing my hands. By boss says she can't smell goat on me. I keep a few barn coats and only wear one to handle the bucks. I use either Arm and Hammer or All Free and Clear soap and get the smell out of my clothes with that. The worst was when I had to haul a Boer buckling in the back of my Suburu wagon. It stunk, so I got one of those new car smell air fresheners and the car smelled better in a couple days.


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## pookshollow (Aug 22, 2005)

I understand you can burn off the scent glands at the same time you disbud a buckling. Does anybody do this?

I have noticed the odd "goaty" taste in our milk lately. The little Nigerian buckling must be starting to smell a little bit. Oh well, he's leaving soon!


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## moosemaniac (Mar 7, 2003)

I use goat milk soap on me and Fabreze in the laundry. Works pretty darned well.

Ruth


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