I had a misguided idea that my doe I never milked would be fine nursing 1 kid after sending her son home on Tuesday. Having 3 goats, I was milking 2 and didn't milk this one as she was more difficult and other two easy.
I was wrong- doweling couldn't keep up with milk supply and she became over filled. In my inexperience, I couldn't get milk out of her- not 1 drop.
So, I brought back the son (new owner lives next town over) and voila- she was now only 1/2 engorged within 3 hours AND let me milk her - first time ever. She is the queen and I vaguely remembered a friend say to always milk queen first in rotation. She has the best stream of all 3 goats but I hate the placement of her angled teats. Oh well.
I'll be doing more milking than I want for a bit.....
Judy
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I'm glad to hear this is working for you. Milking the queen first doesn't affect their let-down. I actually don't have a super strong herd queen at the moment, but back when I did, the only thing that would happen if she wasn't milked first is that it would sound like an ax murderer trying to get into the milking parlor while I was milking whichever goat happened to get ahead of her. And then she had a daughter who also thought she had to be first, so it always sounded pretty scary in the milking parlor as I was milking the first goat for a couple of years. :)
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I'm glad to hear this is working for you. Milking the queen first doesn't affect their let-down. I actually don't have a super strong herd queen at the moment, but back when I did, the only thing that would happen if she wasn't milked first is that it would sound like an ax murderer trying to get into the milking parlor while I was milking whichever goat happened to get ahead of her. And then she had a daughter who also thought she had to be first, so it always sounded pretty scary in the milking parlor as I was milking the first goat for a couple of years. :)