Milking Coal

Our small black nanny, Coal, is two years old but this year she was pregnant for the first time. As she rejected her babies, we are hand raising them. We also started milking her on the day she gave birth to ensure the babies had a supply of their mother's milk. Milking her started off as a two person job but she is gradually getting used to it and yesterday I milked her alone for the first time.

We have now stopped feeding the babies Coal's milk and have started using it ourselves. The babies are being fed on commercially produced lambs' milk. Coal's milk output is gradually rising. She is quite a small animal so we are not expecting her to produce a milk lake. When we first milked her, we got about a quarter of a litre. Yesterday we got over half a litre. She will continue to increase production in the weeks ahead.

Cheese making activities are on the horizon.