Our first week of milking has been going OK.  We’ve had to adjust our schedules, figuring out what time will work best for us to milk Hazel.  Both my husband and I work full time jobs so we’ve decided to milk Hazel twice a day.  Right now we milk her 5:30 AM and 5:30 PM.  When we first brought home our does, our plan was to allow the babies to nurse until they were ready to wean (which is 8 weeks) then we would begin milking.  However, the babies died the next day (mentioned in this post).  We have been experiencing a lot of rain which means the goat pen is muddy!  We don’t have a large shed or barn to milk the goat in so we bring her into our foyer until we can get our plans for the milking stand together.  We are not 100% sure what the set up is going to be.  Where the does are now was supposed to be our garden area since their area has a large camper and boat which we haven’t been able to move yet since our truck broke down.

Otherwise, milking has been going okay.  Usually people use something called a teat dip to clean the teats before and after milking.  Our Tractor Supply didn’t have any so I’ve been using warm water with a little dish soap to wash her utter before and after milking.  I then use clean warm water to wash the utter off then dry the utter once we are done milking.  The first time we milked we got maybe a few tablespoons…not much at all.  As we continue to milk we get around 1 Cup to 2 Cups per milking.  Hazel has done fairy well, too, I guess!  I have nothing to compare to as I have never in my life milked a goat or any other animal before.  Every time we begin to milk, she will kick, trying to get away.  Either it’s me doing the milking and my husband is holding her or my oldest son is milking and I’m holding her.  Without a stand to tie her to, we have to hold her still.  Even thought she looks small and sweet, she is strong!  After her struggling for a few seconds, we are able to get a couple of squirts out and she’ll be still.  It’s as though she is saying “I get what you are doing and this is okay”.  Usually she will be still until we are done.  Of course we do bribe her with grain as well.  Sometimes she will eat it all, sometimes she will just eat a little.  One morning with my husband holding her, I was finally able to milk her with both hands!  It made the milking process go a lot quicker!  I do feel more comfortable in milking her now than I did the first day.  Even though I watched several youtube videos on other people milking it is not the same.  I had to find my own rhythm that was comfortable for me.  If you are new to milking a goat yourself then don’t give up or get discouraged, just do your best until you find your rhythm!  It will then become so easy!

At first we used a stainless steel mesh to filter the milk into a glass jar.  This got some hair, not all.  When we tried the milk, it was not pleasant in having hair in your mouth.  Yuck.  Luckily, we found a bag of coffee filters in our cabinet.  I tuck the coffee filter on the top of the jar and place the metal mesh over that.  I do this to make sure the coffee filter doesn’t get clogged with hair. So far so good!  No more hair!

I’m interested in making our own teat dip.  I have seen there are a lot of different recipes.  I’m not sure if we will go down that route or just continue using warm soapy water.  Cold weather is right around the corner, I’m not sure if a teat dip will be warm enough for the goat.  Who wants something cold and wet touching their skin when it’s already cold outside!?

I plan to make a vlog once we figure out everything allowing you to see what we decided on. Hopefully this will help someone else out!  I posted a video below showing what we are doing right now.  We are in our foyer…which needs to have finishing touches done before we can move furniture in…I guess it’s a good thing we haven’t finished yet!  🙂

10-7-2018 Still Milking Strong