Java. the end.

[glenolam]

Yes, Fudgie is a FF and she's so far my only doe in milk.

The other problem I have, though, is timing. I could only milk her in the evenings after I get home from work, get dinner going and get the kid in bed. By then the girls have sucked her dry during the day.

My time will come - in a week or two I'm going to do my teat taping method and see what I get. Gotta get more milked stocked up for soap!

 

[savingdogs]

I can only milk in the evenings too at this point, because it is a two person job for me right now. In the morning my husband and younger son are gone and my older son works nights so waking him up to help milk a goat would probably not go over too well.

But mine have seemed to be okay with just milking once a day at night....of course I have the kids nursing. And I have only a total of three kids and the doe with two (Ginger) is a significantly larger goat than the doe with one (Molly). Ginger does not have much extra and she is losing condition despite all the food she wants.

I can see already however that Molly will be my best milker. Ginger is the best mother but it is so much faster and easier to milk her, I think it has to do with her orafices. The milk goes straight down with Molly and with Ginger, there is like two streams, one going down and the other hitting the wall, my eye, the stanchion and where ever else. I've had to wipe down the whole room each time or else it will start to smell like sour milk in there!

I hope that as my goats get trained I can do this without help.

 

[glenolam]

You'll be able to do it without help for sure! You're doing everything right - as long as the kids are fed and your girls aren't getting too bad condition-wise I'd keep going.

 

[Javamama]

One week old and our buckling has figure out the birds and the beez Oh joy. He's humping everything.

 

[savingdogs]

We have that problem too. Doesn't he know that is his cousin as well as his half sister! ewwwwww! I should have named him Hillbilly.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i milked Nibbles only once a day for most of last summer. she did fine. she started out with about 1.5 cups but then was up to about a quart! they'll start cranking on the milk in the next couple of weeks.

remember that you can massage her udder also - not just bump it. about 3/4 of the way done i'll give the udder a good rub then she'll let down the rest of the milk. and sometimes if you just give her a second to rest then start again.

the warm water wash is supposed to stimulate it also. honestly i would just get a handful of paper towel under warm water, give a bit of a squirt of Dawn dishwashing, and then give them a scrub. then i'd use a fresh, dry paper towel to wipe down. easy peasy. thats probably not the best practices, but good is good for me.

SD i let java know earlier today that i just use baling twine to hobble my ladies. they hate it and it works. and they learn there is no kicking on the stand. Nibbles figured it out really fast. but lets face it - she'll do anything for feed.

great milking, ladies!!!

 

[Javamama]

He's an uncle and half-sibling to 2 of the girls We giggle because Perdy became a mom and a Grandma all in the span of a few minutes

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey baby are you outside!! can you believe it! and the mud is actually drying off! whoooot!

 

[Javamama]

Yeah - I went out at 7 and let the goat kids play 'climb the human' A couple of them are totally 'in your face' type goats. Cute, but I like the shy quiet one that I am keeping for myself.

We got a little over a cup of milk last night and I don't think it's quite clear to drink yet. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't yummy either and it had a slight aftertaste. It's only been 9 days though.

late morning update: the girls got a blue ribbon for their good behavior on the milk stand this morning! Didn't need to mik them, but I did trim their hair around the udder finally.

I'm opening the windows today! Getting the stale air out of this house!

 

[savingdogs]

I opened up the windows the other day when we had a warm spell. It was so nice to get the winter odors out. With all our indoor dogs, we have quite a bit of pet odor!

I've already been saving milk....but haven't tasted it. That was dumb, huh. It is frozen so it is a little late to taste it now.

I'm thinking of maybe just saving all this milk I have so far for soap except my colostrum day milk. Do you make soap Java?