# Molly has kidded!!!!!



## Molly&Monica (Sep 9, 2009)

Hey everybody! :wave: I love this site so much-I wish I hours to read and pour over everything. I am a cow lover who was given 2 Nubian/Sable does by my Aunt who has been in dairy goats for ? many years! ANYWAY...Molly has one adorable kid (a boy-not sure what they are called before they are fixed). We will keep him as a wether for my son to play with and hopefully pull a small cart. All very far down the road!

TODAY'S QUESTION is pressing and a little serious! Molly has always been incredibly wild-UGH! She has been better since kidding and I have been able to milk her several times. I don't have a standchion so I am wallowing around on the ground for now-I can see that's going to get old fast and I am searching around here for a quick fix to that! I am leaving her boy on her and she is still producing plenty. I am worried that I am not getting her bag emptied-I am FIRST TIME MILKER and I feel like I'm really doing well all things considered, but she is from strong milking background and I am only getting 1-2 cups. Also...slap me now-I know I am thinking to myself "suck it up cupcake" because I cannot put the milk in my mouth! I am milking into a stainless steel water bottle and filtering it though a white coffee filter and still am freaked out! 

How many people seriously drink raw milk and survive? heh I know I am over reacting. Any advice would be so appreciated. And I can already see why goats wrap themselves around your heart and never ver let go!!


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

welcome :wave:

congrats on a successfull kidding 

as to the raw milk -- just ate some myself a second ago with a bowl of cereal for dinner LOL

I have been eating raw goats milk off and on (depending on the time of year if there is milk or not) since I was 12 years old. I havent died yet  

actually raw milk is very healthy for you and if chilled right away it will last a couple days in the fridge 


welcome to the nutty goat world


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## BetterBuckskins (Feb 1, 2009)

I ingest raw goat milk in some form, every day...Yum. You have the control over how clean your milk is, if you clean the teats first and use a clean bucket container for storage etc, it's fine. Everything I use goes through the dishwasher before reuse to ensure sterility. Use common sense, if it smells off, throw it out, otherwise enjoy, and reap the health benefits. If you can't bring yourself in drink it raw, you always can pasteurize it yourself. :wink:


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

Welcome to the group! 
Raw milk is perfectly fine as long as its handled properly. I drink it only raw.
As far as a stantion, it can be as simple as putting a wooden box wide enough for a goat to stand on up against a wall. Put an eye hook in the wall with a double ended snap and something she can eat out and tada you have a milk stand. 
If you keep milking her and keep handeling she will get friendslier and friendlier. Freshening (having kids) usually makes a wild doe much more calm. play with her as much as you can, pick up her feet touch her all over. Same with the kid. 
A young make kid is called a buckling or buck kid. An adult unaltered male is a buck. Altered males as you know are whethers. Young does are doelings or doe kids.
Hope this helps!
beth


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## Gumtree (Aug 15, 2009)

raw milk is great I've lived on it since i was born(not joking )17 years ago and am still alive!!!!  
however we always strain the milk to get any hair or any other stuff out!
and to check for mastitis 
but i would drink about a liter of cows or goats milk (depending on what we have got), a day (and love it) :leap:


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## Molly&Monica (Sep 9, 2009)

WHOO-HOO! Great to hear back from you! I know my current system is a little "hillbilly" heehee but her colostrum is gone now and I'm thinkin' it's time to try some ! Where can I purchase (online) the right things I need for milking and straining? I actually drank goat's milk until I was 2 because I was allergic to everything else. I just can't hardly wrap my head around it now-but I did take a sip of a glass I had in the fridge and it is MUCH better than what my aunt gets. It's got that awful taste in the back of your throat!!

I am also really excited about the soap. My sons skin clears right up on it! I haven't had a chance tolook-are there some recipes here or can you recomend another source for goat milk soap recipes?


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

Check out Hoegger supply and caprine supply. They are both goat supply sites. and both have great and many options for milking equipment. A stainless steel bucket works well, because it can be sterilized in between milkings. I have a friend that uses glass peanut jars for the same reason, the mouth is also small allowing less debri in the milk. She puts a square of plastic wrap under the lid. You can strain your milk through milk filters or coffee filters. I use coffee filters because they are easier to get and cheaper. . Also cooling the milk fast is best. I put a bucket of ice water in the sink and put my jars in there after it is strained. Its easier to strain warm milk then cold milk. Washing your does udder before and after milkings is good. along with keep it neatly clipped. soless chance of hair and dirt fallin into you milk.
beth


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

I used a stainless steal cooking pot for a while and a teat strainer but I like the milk filters better - the coffee filters rip to easily plus they are way to slow for me to wait on -- its a patience thing.

As to when to drink it -- wait at least a week if not two before you start drinking the milk for best flavor (at least thats my opinion


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## ecologystudent (May 30, 2009)

For milk filtering I went to this little kitchen store and they had these very fine mesh tea strainers that work wonderfully (very fast) for me- I hate fidgeting around with paper filters. I also drink my milk raw, and I've even made a few raw cheese. Yummy. Good luck with your milking!


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Welcome and congrats on the lil' buckling!

Yep, me too!
I was raised on raw goats milk and will not drink it any other way. The benefits of clean, raw milk that is properly handled far outweigh the risks. :wink: 
The forum has a few threads on recipes for soap as well as other goodies made from goats milk.

Milking is a learned experience for both you and the doe, the more patient you are and the more you persevere the better it will get...and the fact that you've gotten just a few cups is likely because mom is holding her milk for her baby, rubbing and bumping her udder the way her baby does will help her "let down".
I use the milk filters I can get from Tractor Supply, faster flow and much easier to deal with than paper coffee filters that wick the milk, the filters are great and have a very close clothlike weave that traps even the teeniest bit of hay dust or stray hairs. Hoeggars also carries them www.thegoatstore.com


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## Molly&Monica (Sep 9, 2009)

You guys are great, thanks for all of the feedback! I wondered about the warm milk/cold milk speed of straining. I think I am patient enough to wait for the coffee filter, but I'll have to get that ice water in the sink thing going! So this week and maybe next the barn cats and chickens get the excess milk-sounds like a plan and that gives me a chance to perfect my "milk handling". What soap do I use for her udder wash? Do I need to rinse or can you give me some instruction there? The baby wipes sound super easy-what about that? OHHH I can't even imagine what this doe will do if I bring clippers into the picture! HA! But she has been surprising me all week, so I guess I will give it a shot!! She is black and I've seen plenty of black hairs when I use a wide mouth pan like my mixer bowl. Milking into the water bottle hasn't given me any hair, but it's a little hard to perfect your technique when you're trying to hit a 2 inch hole-heehee She has been SOO patient with me!

OH! And one other thing, will the buckling drink out of both sides equally? So should I milk out both sides equally? Seriously, I am the mother of twins that I breastfed you wouldn't think I would have to ask these things but hey-gotta take good care of our animals so they will take care of us, right? :thumbup:


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Some single kids will just nurse one side...making the udder lopsided, thats where you come in! You will definately see and feel if that is the case....oh and baby wipes are GREAT for before milking, I use the unscented "generic" ones. As far as an udder wash, what has worked for me is a small amount of antibacterial dish soap in a small bucket of warm water, but that was before the wipies.

Afterwards, I use a diluted gentled iodine in a baby food jar as a teat dip.....but my girls don't usually have kids on them when I milk fulltime. In your case with the baby still nursing, what I do is wipe her again with a clean wipie and let the kids finish stripping her. Haven't had a problem with infection yet. I'm sure there will be others that post with what works for them :wink:


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## Gumtree (Aug 15, 2009)

oh welcome to the forum 
i forgot before  
For strainers we have used cheesecloth or other material with that sort of weave basically what ever the milk will go through,
and do it as soon as we bring the milk in.
and just milk into any clean convenient kitchen wear  
and welcome to the fun of goats (they can put you though every mood in a matter of about 5 mins )well that what i recon anyway :ROFL: :slapfloor:


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## Molly&Monica (Sep 9, 2009)

Well, yes we went through just about every mood TODAY in fact! I am trying to get her to step up on a bench so my aching back can have a rest milking her. The WILD GOAT is back! I am trying to get by with a patio bench up against the barn wall. I know not the best choice, but if I ask my husband to build me one more thing right now he is going to CHOKE me-teehee Plus, I checked into the prices of disbudders-OMYGOSH! 

This is where you all come in!!! :help: Please tell me how you get the girls up on the milking stands. I hung the grain high so she did get her front feet up but (OMGOSH) she is heavier than I expected and didn't appreciate my lifting her hind legs!! heehee I know, all of this should have been done BEFORE kidding but seriously I was so fed up with them (Molly and Monica) that I was considering the offers I had recieved to buy them. I am glad I saw it through...still having issues with the taste of the milk. (I wouldn't have tried it today after the recomendation to wait two weeks but all my kids asked for it tonight at dinner. :clap: ) But I am really excited to make soap!!

I have a disbudding question, but I'll put it in the correct heading. Thanks you guys are so great!!


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## Gumtree (Aug 15, 2009)

hmm well i don't really know about putting them on a stand.... (mine were very tame so they just jumped on it for the food)  
bar one she wasn't tame so i would just catch her and tie her up to a tree n milk there.
could you put the kid at the front of the stand (maybe lock her away from the kid for an hour or so) so that when she see's him she'll jump up to get to it???? I don't really know but someone else probably will :ROFL:


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

I usually grab the leg farthest from the stand, then they get the idea pretty quick that its much more comfortable for them to jump up then for me to grab their opposit leg and pull them up


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## Ariel301 (Oct 13, 2009)

Congratulations on your kid! 

We didn't have a milk stand when we first got our does, plus they were accustomed to being machine milked, and I had never milked a goat (but I had milked other animals) so it was a rodeo the first few weeks. Just keep at it, you'll get it. When I first started, it would take me half an hour to milk one goat! My hands got all swollen and sore for a couple of weeks until I built up the strength to milk.

Our goats never had any trouble with the stand, I led them up to it and they jumped right up. Now that I feed them treats while they get milked, I don't even have to lead them; I just open the gate and they come out to the milk stand in order and jump up there. When they are done, they go back to their pens on their own. 

Raw milk is actually better for you than pasteurized. I've seen research showing that the pasteurization process destroys many of the nutrients of the milk, and makes the calcium in it fairly useless to your body. There is also a link between countries where pasteurized milk is consumed and higher diabetes rates than countries where milk is usually consumed raw. In fact, when my grandma was diagnosed with osteoporosis, the doctor told her not to drink milk anymore because the pasteurized storebought milk would make it worse! I drink only raw milk now, and I think I'm healthier for it. I don't even use a teat dip on our does; I just rinse their udders off with warm water and a bit of soap, because the teat dips were giving them dry, irritated skin. I filter the milk through cheesecloth and put it right into the fridge to cool quickly.


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## Molly&Monica (Sep 9, 2009)

O man! Your description of your hands makes mine ACHE!!!! My right hand has been cramping but nothing like what youe described. I can only milk with one hand because I am milking her into a stainless steel water bottle. Those milking pails ARE NOT cheap! Besides, to set it on the ground is just asking for trouble with her. 

We have changed her diet to alfalfa hay, one dairy goat ration and one half sweet feed. The milk still has a goat cheese after taste to me, but my husband (who initially hated it when we had her on a different grain) says it now tastas "SUPERB". heehee Anyway, I have been getting enough from her each morning to give us each a small glass with out dinner and tome that one small glass is worth mymorning rodeo because I know it's really good for us! I justa have to drink mine fast and then chase it with a bite of dinner.

Thanks so much for your ideas and encouragement!!


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## Steph (May 7, 2009)

Hoegger Goat Supply has milk starter kits that are nice. That's what I got for mine. I use half galloon mason jar to strain my milk into and put it into a cooler full of water with icies made out of pop bottles. My milk it ice cold by the time I get it into the fridge and it tastes great. I also have a separate room for milking and we were lucky to have a milk stand given to us. Had we not gotten a milk stand for free I would probly be using my picnic table to milk on! As long as my goats have food they are good on the stand. Goats are ALL about food!


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## Molly&Monica (Sep 9, 2009)

Thank you so much for the tip about Hoegger-that will be great! I am so excited to order it. My husband and 3 little kids built me a pretty GREAT milk stand on Saturday while I was at a scrapbooking event all day. Am I lucky or what?!? It's great. For a guy who "hates" goats, I think he is secretly coming around  

What a great tip about the frozen water bottles. I think I saw mason jar lids on the Hoeggrs web site as well. THANK YOU


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