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Henry Milker

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Last week my dear husband bought me a Henry Milker milking machine. We had been struggling with Tinkerbell for a while and, while the milk was flowing, we weren’t getting as much as we could if only I was a bit better at milking and Tinkerbell a bit better at being milked. Every morning after milking she would return to the pasture without her udders being emptied. All you breastfeeding mothers out there know that this will eventually result in a decrease in production. Right now there are babies out there to finish emptying out what I wasn’t milking out. But eventually, when the babies are weaned, it will be my job to empty her out. If not, her udder with milk leftover will send a signal to her brain that she must not have needed that much and will regulate her production to whatever is being milked out. We don’t want that. We want MORE milk.

Milking Tinkerbell by hand is also difficult because she is a first timer and her teats are microscopic. Throw out any images you might have of using your whole hand to milk, like milking a cow. This is a goat. And a dwarf one at that. And a first time mom. Put all that together and you’re out there milking with a couple of fingers. Makes my carpal tunnel feel real nice.

(sidenote: These next pictures were taken in the garage and the warm light makes her look yellow. Instead, she’s a nice pretty white in real life. Carry on.)

We’ve been using the Henry Milker for a few days now and so far so good. We’ve doubled our daily output of milk! And, as a bonus, the Henry Milker seems to have made Tink’s teats bigger and she’s starting to look more like a real dairy girl. I’m not sure if it’s because the machine is helping to increase her production or if it is because of the suction, but I’m happy about it so far. We will continue to monitor these changes to prevent any damage being done to her udder since a milking machine (even a hand pump) isn’t a very natural set-up.

As another bonus, she has settled down considerably since switching to the pump and she seems to prefer it milking her over me milking her. I’m not offended. I’ll take it any way I can get it old girl.

Here’s what a week’s worth of hand milking got us:

And here’s how much we got after a couple of days using the Henry Milker:

Not too shabby. And this morning, I was finally able to milk her dry and be confident that when I sent her back to the goat pasture she was empty. Success!

Meanwhile, updates from the breeder where Dolly is staying is that she isn’t interested in her beau so far. But she’s made lots of new girl friends and is fitting in just fine. That’s great, but she needs to ditch those chicks and turn her interest to the dude! We need babies Dolly! Not friends! I’ll keep you posted. Hopefully she gets that lovin’ feelin’ sometime soon!

Stay tuned for updates on the garden, a new chicken tractor for the teenage chickens, and pictures of Chickentraz 3.0. And the countdown is on for our delivery of 12,000 honeybees! It’s been a busy spring!

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