Producing more Doe kids than Bucks?

2013: 1 girl, 1 boy
2014: 1 girl, 3 boys

I'd rather have boys - I plan on keeping my core group of ewes and I don't want my flock to get too big. Girls are too tempting to want to keep!

I am in CA and we had our infamous drought last year, incredibly dry and warm too. I had many more does than bucks so that theory did hold for me.

If you can figure out how to make more girl kids than boys, you will be a millionaire. If any of these "old wives tales" actually worked, the multi-Billion dollar dairy industry would be implimenting it en mass. No way to change it, no way to influence it. Any surges from one year to the next are all coincidence, with one exception. In very rare instances, you may get a buck who throws only one sex or a high proportion of one sex. As nice as this sounds, you don't want this buck, it means he has a faulty chromosome and the reduced fertility that comes with it. You don't want these genetics in your herd.

Have heard of many people who prefer keeping the boys over the girls because they're sookier and lazier! We get about the 50:50 ratio here, and we've tried several 'methods'!

jodief100 said:

If you can figure out how to make more girl kids than boys, you will be a millionaire. If any of these "old wives tales" actually worked, the multi-Billion dollar dairy industry would be implimenting it en mass. No way to change it, no way to influence it. Any surges from one year to the next are all coincidence, with one exception. In very rare instances, you may get a buck who throws only one sex or a high proportion of one sex. As nice as this sounds, you don't want this buck, it means he has a faulty chromosome and the reduced fertility that comes with it. You don't want these genetics in your herd.

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x2 It is what it is--chance.

There is a ***teensy*** bit evidence that the acidity of a vagina might make it easier for "female" sperm to survive the journey to the egg, but it has barely been studied and there is not much you can do to change the PH of your goat's hoohoo.

Drinking ACV might be nice for the digestive system but has no bearing the the gender of the kids, the teeehee's acidity, and the number of eggs released at ovulation. Anyone who claims otherwise---beware taking any advice from them because they are full of beans.

The last two years have been pretty good doe years for me, but that was because one of my two does has produced 7 does and 1 buck out of three pregnancies.
2013: (Saanen) 3 does, (Nubian) 1 buck/ 1 doe
2014: (Saanen) 2 does/ 1 buck, (Nubian) 2 bucks/ 1 doe.
Total: 7 does, 4 bucks.
I give ACV on the feed, and before breeding last year I supplemented both does heavily with vitamin C and vitamin B12. (The farm where my Saanen was bred had had sickness, and I didn't want her to get it. My Nubian had been sick shortly before she was bred, and the vitamin C cured her.)
I've heard that feeding root crops can increase the number of kids born. My Saanen did love carrots, and has had one set of twins, and two sets of triplets... They also get free-choice kelp and baking soda, at least, they do when I don't forget to refill the feeders!
But, ultimately, there isn't much you can do (that I know of) to produce more does than bucks. But I think that if you have all of one or the other, probably some mineral is out of balance. (Just my opinion.)

For me it has gone as follows:

2013- 2 does/1 buck
2014- 7 does/ 8 bucks

Hoping this year produces around 50/50 or 60/40 in does! That would be awesome! Only time will tell!

I need a doe year... just sayin'

Southern by choice said:

I need a doe year... just sayin'

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I'm due one after this spring