And Then There Were Three - Again.

We finally figured out what was the problem with Bella's milk. Yes, it is the legumes that are causing an increase in the enzymes in the milk. We were able to keep the milk slightly longer, but it's really hard to keep her totally off legumes.

Soooooo, here is our solution:

Meet, Felicity. Our newest goat. Isn't she a cutie? Plus, her milk is really, really good. So good in fact, that my kids have started turning their noses up at our regular cow milk. The $9 a gallon milk that we have loved for the last two years! We are getting about 4 cups (or 2 pounds) of milk from her a day. That is enough that I was able drop the cow share that we have been a part of. We were going to a local raw milk dairy. We are now producing enough for our family right here at our house.

Our original plan was to get two Nigerian Dwarf goats. So really we are just returning to our original plan. We have sold Finley (and have Bella up for sale) and are trying to get down to our two goat limit. It is super sad to see Finley go, but I really don't want to hang around another 15 months to find out that she has the same problems with her milk that Bella has. I keep reminding myself that they are farm animals, not pets.

It helps, too, that we are in the process of breeding Penny for babies again in early February. Well, we hope we are breeding Penny. She is providing yet another farm learning experience. If you remember, back in May when we bought her I left her with a Buck for a week or so. The breeder never saw any "action" and never saw Penny come into heat. We assumed that she was not bred. The problem comes now that I am planning out our milk supply. I have not seen her come into heat since she has been here. Usually for goats it's every 21 days or so. We should have seen several heat cycles. Not so. Is she bred? I get to learn how to draw blood for a pregnancy test. If negative then we send her to a buck within the next month. If positive then we plan for babies mid to late October.

Either way, I have to do the pregnancy test. If I wait until October to see if anything happens then it will be too late to breed her to have continuous milk production. Oh, the trials and tribulations of raising goats for milk. ;-)

Oh, and did you wonder how the cheese turned out? It was horrible. Way too strong with Bella's milk. We will try again with Felicity's milk. I have great hopes.