Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Weaning, not as much fun as it sounds

My day did not start well. The cheese I started yesterday didn’t set last night, not sure why, and Dena and the babies were all mad at me this morning. We separated them last night, and I kept them apart until after milking Dena this morning. Also Daisy was a little miffed because I fed them in the wrong order. The cheese is a loss, a wasted gallon of milk. Fortunately I know where to get more milk. The goats will just have to get used to this new order.

The babies are eight weeks old this week. Eight weeks (or earlier even) is the recommended age for weaning, and I can see signs of Dena already thinking their nursing days are coming to an end. The problem with that is that Dena’s milk, by nature, dries up when the babies don’t need it any more. So if I want to be able to milk her, I need to start now. I’ve been having practice milking sessions with her for a couple of weeks now. In the morning after milking Daisy, Dena gets on the milk stand. Well, saying she gets on the milk stand would imply that she hops up there willingly. At first she does, but when she realizes I’m about to the close the headlock, she makes a break for it and I have to haul her back.

We started practicing for this at least a year ago when I started feeding her on the milk stand to get her used to it. But now there is more involved, and she hates it. When I go for her udder she starts stomping and kicking and trying to climb over the front of the milk stand. This is not unusual; and I’m not torturing her, I promise. It’s common for first fresheners (that’s goat talk for first time moms) to have trouble getting used to being milked. When we first brought Dena home, she was a skittish little thing, as my grandfather would say. She didn’t like being touched at all. She especially didn’t like, still doesn’t like, being led by the collar. I worked with her for months to get her comfortable with being petted and loved on. She’ll get used to being milked, too.

Weaning the babies is going to be almost as hard (on me) as training Dena to be milked. They have to be separated from mama at night so they aren’t nursing, and I get the full night’s production of milk in the morning. The first night we’d planned to separate them, Joan went with me to help get everybody in the right stalls. Daisy and Spike have been sleeping in one of the stalls of the original shed, with Dena and the babies in the other stall. (One night Dena decided she’d had enough of the smaller kidding shed, I guess. When Joan went to lock them all up Dena took the babies into the main shed, so Joan let them stay. We’re still keeping Daisy and Spike separate from them so the babies don’t get hurt in any rough housing.) Because the kidding shed is smaller, we figured the babies would sleep there. When they followed Dena into her stall, we scooped them up and deposited them in the kidding shed and headed back to the house for supper. Well, we started back to the house when one of the babies let out a scream that sounded like someone was burning her or him with a hot poker. They both cried so loud I was afraid the local police or animal rescue would be called. I knew they were going to cry. I was prepared for that. But this was off the charts. I couldn’t leave them there. They were not only apart from mama for the first time, they couldn’t see her at all. Back they went into Dena’s stall. We had to rethink the situation.

Last night we decided to put Daisy and Spike in the smaller kidding shed. They’ll just have to deal with it. It’s temporary. The main shed is separated into two stalls by a slatted wall and door with space between the boards, so the babies can be in one stall and Dena in the other, and they can still see each other. Yes, when we walked away they cried. The babies cried, and Dena hollered. I translated for Joan as we walked down the hill. “Hey bitch, what do you think you’re doing? Those are my babies! They need to be with me!” But this time we kept walking away. And yes, I went to the door a few times to listen for them. The babies cried for a little while and then stopped. They cried a little again when Joan took the dogs out, and they heard her voice. But they eventually settled down and slept.

This morning They yelled at me a little when I didn’t let them get to mama right away, but they weren’t too bad. Dena vocalized her discontent as well, until I put food in front of her. Daisy fussed a little when she realized I’d changed up the milking order. I knew the babies would go right for Dena’s udder first thing, so I left them some milk. Dena danced and kicked a bit, but she’s getting better. Maybe she’s getting used to the idea that the babies aren’t the only ones that will be pulling her teats. Maybe.
That's Daisy's morning production on the left
and Dena's on the right. Not bad for a beginner.