# When does everyone milk?



## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

I'll go first, I'm a night owl, can't get to sleep until 3-4am sometimes.
I milk at 12 and 12
When do you milk?


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## adriHart (Nov 1, 2012)

I have a day job that starts at 530 in the morning every other day.I really love sleep, particularly on the days that I don't have to work.I don't have my coat on my property but they live less than a mile down the road so I stop on my way home from work at about 5 in the evening to milk two does currently.they have a kid on them full time too. so I am able to leave for weekend trips if I want, but I get less milk this way. I used to separate that kid at night and milk first thing in the morning but like I said I like to sleep in and hate schedules...  the amount of milk I get now is about a quarter less total than morning milking only.


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## BrokenArrowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

I too am a night owl. I milk at 11 am and 11 pm.. or as close to it as I can.


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## BrokenArrowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

It's funny, I get people that get mad at me when I tell them my feed schedule. Who cares as long as its at 12 hour intervals? My horses aren't going to get sick as long as its a routine. It's not like I feed at 7 and 7 one day then 11 and 11 the next...


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

^^ lol, as long is it gets done, that's my way of thinking! Nope, not gonna kill them, it's a routine, that's all that matters.


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## canthavejust1 (Oct 12, 2012)

I milk at 8 and 8. I gotta say lately I have been crazy exhausted by 8pm. Man!! summers are lotsa hard work. I get up at 6:30 to feed babies then have coffee and milk and then do all the other endless things that need doing on the farm lol. What time do u night owls wake up??


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## AmyBoogie (May 20, 2013)

I'm a morning person. We start chores around 7am usually.


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

i'm a morning person, and I have to get to work by 8, so I milk anywhere between 6-7am.... weekends maybe a little later. they get mad at me, but mommy needs her sleepy time!


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## Stacykins (Mar 27, 2012)

I'm an 8 and 8 milker too. Though I am out there doing chores earlier, I just do the milking last so I can relax and take my time. 

Whatever works for your schedule is great! Don't listen to the people who balk at your for your night owl schedule! I was a huge night owl...until my job forced me to a more normal sleep pattern. I still miss my nightly quiet time, where it was just me and a good book...or some gaming on my gaming computer!


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

We usually milk 7 to 7, or 8 to 7:30. Night time is usually our family time, so we finish dinner, milk, and watch a movie. Usually my mom and I (the goat caretakers) also stay up late; her finishing house work, me trying to fit in some writing and drawing. I do my best creative work in the peace of the night, so waking up earlier than 7 is sometimes painful. :laugh:


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## christinajh (Jan 24, 2013)

I milk at 6 and 6. Most days I go back to bed afterwards. My work schedule varies, so I felt 6 was best then it's consistent and not different each day.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

we homeschool, and have tons of animals to feed and check on my girls now do the milking...( oh but how I miss it!) 
during hot weather we like to milk 7/7 cold months 8/8 ...then its breakfast, house chores, school (goat spot for me lol)..then lunch, back out to do water checks, I feed alfalfa mid day...then we are good until early evening when we do it all again..unless its hooves and check up day...or water/feeder scrubbing day...oh and after a storm we spend a few days cleaning up after that lol...I like it busy


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

I managed to get to bed at 2am, I wake up at 7-8. Then top off everyone's feeder, flush the water. Go back inside, dink around on the internet for a few, then go out and milk, billion things in between, make dinner, clean up, watch tv, get back on the internet, then go out and milk, come back in and a little while later I get tired enough to go to bed.


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

Lacie, this is off the topic, but I had been WAITING for you to get a website so I can drool over your animals~


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

^^ :lol: well I have one now, not done but its coming along!


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

I am only milking once a day right now but it's 8-8 30 and they get grain again at 7pm which is when i would do my second milking...


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## Rev144 (Jan 22, 2011)

5 to 6 and 5:45 to 6:30...... My milk room is right in the sun! Its like 105 in the afternoons when I milk. I am getting pretty good milking one handed and swatting flies with the other!


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## Texaslass (May 15, 2013)

We used to milk twice a day, 7:00 and 7:00 for a while, sometimes 8 and 8; it's varied a lot over the years.

Since we've been milking once a day(sort of, we still milk one of them twice a day since she doesn't have much. It just helps us to have that little bit of extra milk that gives us.) we usually go out around 8, (none of us are morning people except my mom - she's always up by like 6:30 ) feed all the goats their morning ration and milk Suzi (takes less than 2 min. usually; she give about half a gallon per milking).
We all take turns checking on them mid day. In the evening we go out around 6:30, milk, feed the rest again, check water again, and that's about it!

Our evenings are a lot like 3Havens described theirs, that's why we milk so early in the evening.  We often have family time at night; watch a movie, or visit in the living room, etc.
Lol, and us older kids are always trying to draw or read at night too! ;p There's not enough time during the day!


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

I milk, feed ect at 9-10am-9-10pm. That will change soon though once I move. I'll miss being a night owl.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

xymenah said:


> I milk, feed ect at 9-10am-9-10pm. That will change soon though once I move. I'll miss being a night owl.


Why would moving change that?

I milk around 8 and 8. It's never exactly the same time.


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## Goat_in_Himmel (Jun 24, 2013)

Because my schedule varies from one day to the next and I can't have a consistent 12-hour interval milking time, I milk at 9am and 5:30 pm, as that's when I can be home to milk each and every day. It gets noisy in the goat barn just before milking time, so I don't really need to keep my eye on the clock! They seem to like consistency. I don't think they care if it's a 12 hour interval or not.


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

ksalvagno said:


> Why would moving change that?


Because I'll have a job that I have to get to by 6am and won't get off till 6-7pm.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You have a job already at your new place? Wow, that is great. Explains why you can't be a night owl.


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## OakHollowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

We milk at 7:00 am and 6-6:30 pm.


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## mirage_mp (Jun 29, 2013)

adriHart said:


> I have a day job that starts at 530 in the morning every other day.I really love sleep, particularly on the days that I don't have to work.I don't have my coat on my property but they live less than a mile down the road so I stop on my way home from work at about 5 in the evening to milk two does currently.they have a kid on them full time too. so I am able to leave for weekend trips if I want, but I get less milk this way. I used to separate that kid at night and milk first thing in the morning but like I said I like to sleep in and hate schedules...  the amount of milk I get now is about a quarter less total than morning milking only.


So you only milk the one time every day? I've wondered if I could do something like that. (I'm new to goats, and this will be my first year breeding them). We don't need a lot of milk, and with a baby I don't have a lot of time on my hands.  So you just leave the kids on them and get what you can?


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I milk at 4:30 am and 4 pm.... on my days off work I milk at 6 am, currently it's once a day as my girls decided to slow production.


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

mirage_mp said:


> So you only milk the one time every day? I've wondered if I could do something like that. (I'm new to goats, and this will be my first year breeding them). We don't need a lot of milk, and with a baby I don't have a lot of time on my hands.  So you just leave the kids on them and get what you can?


That's actually what we do. Reason I'm milking twice a day now was I weaned one of my doe's kids, as her buckling was remaining intact. The rest of the time, I just let the kids take my night milking.


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

liz said:


> I milk at 4:30 am and 4 pm.... on my days off work I milk at 6 am, currently it's once a day as my girls decided to slow production.


Liz~ you are the last of a dying breed...LOL... 4 30 am....:coffee2:


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## Texaslass (May 15, 2013)

Haha!^^ I alway wonder why people get up that early? Doesn't it just make you tired the rest of the day?


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

^^ LOL...it would me! But I did work graveyard for years before staying home....so I got used to being up all night....now I am up and at em by 7-30 -8-00....I HATED staying up all night...


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Well it's getting hotter here, me's a thinkin I'm gonna flip the schedule to 6 & 6. 
Too hot by noon, GREAT at midnight though. No mosquitoes, no flies (hardly have any anyway though), no sweltering heat, all the pups are asleep and not underfoot, nice outside that time of day  sometimes there's a nice cool breeze too.


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## backyardFarming (Jun 13, 2013)

I work the 11-7 shift in the nursing field... but I made an arrangement with the DON to leave work at 6 am everyday. As soon as I get home, put barn clothes on, get my supplies ready.. (pail and lid, strip cup, clean wash cloth and towels to wash the udder), and prep for pasturization when I come back from the barn; it turns out to be 7 am when I milk my one doe.. And I milk by hand. 
I only milk once a day. I want to milk twice a day.. but afternoons are busy for me with three kids.. ( dance class, baseball season, football season, and 4-H meetings.. evening chorus/band concerts through out the year, summer afternoon day trips.. and family nights) I would never be in the barn at the same time in the evenings to milk so I thought it would be easier on my milker if I just milk once a day:-(


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## Macyllehub (Jan 6, 2013)

7 and 8. I like to be up early and get stuff done and then I often am not home at 7 pm, 8 pm works better for us. 

I've done this the whole time and it works for us.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I really want a routine.. I lost my job on Monday so my schedule is wide open... So I'm going to try 6am and 6pm. I only have 1 in milk right now, so I milk her around 8:30 -9pm just once a day. I have 2 that at the end of the month.. So, I will be milking them after 2 weeks in the AM, until 10-12 weeks, then I'll milk twice a day I'm planning on going to school to be a MA and the class schedule is from 10-2 Mon - Fri... So 6 & 6 should work in the winter months


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

With my job, my shift is 5:15 am to 2 pm Monday thru Saturday, Sundays it's 7:15 am to 2pm.... my days off are usually mid week, my goats have grown used to my schedule and at times are not awake themselves that early in the morning 
Since my goats are also considered pets, I do have them spoiled... they get hay and fresh water as soon as I let my 2 dogs out to potty when I get home from work, as I'm doing that I have a water bucket filling. When I have a doe who's kids have left, I milk 3x a day... AM then 9 hours later and again at bedtime which is around 9pm so each get a minimum 8 hour fill before I milk, once they start to be consistant with production I go to 2x a day and start the once a day after udders aren't feeling as full as they had. My pastures are in direct sun for most of the day so my goats usually aren't out browsing until after 4pm.


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