When Ava and Joy came into heat right after I took them out of the Buck pen with Xerxes, they went a little nuts. First it was Joy–she refused to leave Freddie’s side to come get milked in the morning. And in the morning I don’t have time to deal with that, so she just got milked that evening. And let me tell you, it was still a whole lot of coaxing and begging and chasing and dragging her to the milk room.
Joy
Of course, the next day, I had to repeat the whole process and plus Ava jumped on the crazy hormone train. So the long and short of it is that I’m only milking in the evenings now. I have to say, it is nice not going out before the sun to milk. In the evening, it’s right at twilight when I go milk.
Ava (my nightlight is already on when I come out to milk now)
It’s not a bad thing that I’m down to once a day. My freezers are full; I have my supply of mozzarella and I don’t really have time to make more. I kind of hoped that switching them to once a day would slow down their production. That hasn’t seemed to work. Especially for Ava. She’s kind of going wild with the milk right now.
Between the two of them, I’m still getting a half a gallon a day (or close to it depending on the weather). I don’t know what to do with it all.
By the time I get done milking and filtering it and come out of the milk room, the sun has already set. All I get to see is the afterglow.
Dolly front; Onyx; Penelope, Trace, and Pretzel
Which is still beautiful.
Penelope and Trace; Xerxes on the other side of the fence
Penelope and Trace; LilyAnn (in front) with the moon over the garage
But I still don’t know what to do with all that milk.
Tags: afterglow, Ava, fall, hormones, Joy, milking, short days, sunset
Teresa
Eden Hills 