Sunday, November 2, 2008

October Egg & Milk Tally


Here are the counts for October:
  1. 14 eggs, 4 cups milk
  2. 14 eggs, 4.5 cups milk
  3. 20 eggs, 6 cups milk
  4. 17 eggs, 5 cups milk
  5. 27 eggs, 6 cups milk
  6. 22 eggs, 5.5 cups milk
  7. 23 eggs, 3.5 cups milk
  8. 16 eggs, 5.5 cups milk
  9. 18 eggs, 6.5 cups milk
  10. 30 eggs, 7 cups milk
  11. 24 eggs, 7 cups milk
  12. 26 eggs, 4.5 cups milk
  13. 8 eggs, 4.5 cups milk
  14. 27 eggs, 4 cups milk
  15. 22 eggs, 6 cups milk
  16. 17 eggs, 4 cups milk
  17. 22 eggs, 3.5 cups milk
  18. 22 eggs, 4 cups milk
  19. 18 eggs, 5 cups milk
  20. 20 eggs, 4 cups milk
  21. 18 eggs, 6 cups milk
  22. 20 eggs, no milk
  23. 13 eggs, 3.5 cups milk
  24. 8 eggs, 4.5 cups milk
  25. 17 eggs, 4 cups milk
  26. 10 eggs, 4 cups milk
  27. 9 eggs, 3 cups milk
  28. 7 eggs, no milk
  29. 9 eggs, 3 cups milk
  30. 7 eggs, no milk
  31. 6 eggs, no milk
Total: 531 eggs (44 dozen + 3 eggs) and 128 cups milk (8 gallons)
Eggs sold: 12 dozen

The month started off strong with eggs. Since the chickens returned to the homestead from their portable coop on the pasture, we began to receive lots of good, clean eggs. It was heaven. But, with colder weather and shorter days, our production has been quickly dropping off. It is a good cycle, though, for we are getting quite tired of eggs. Caleb cheers when we have an egg-free breakfast.

We have officially stopped milking Annabelle. I will say that for all the trouble we had sharing milk with her calf, it was a pleasant situation for this reason: when I woke up to freezing temperatures, I could just let Burt out to milk and climb back in bed. I didn't have to worry about milking her because Burt could do it for me. He was happy to oblige, of course.

We attempted to move her into the barn for milking, instead of using my portable stanchion out exposed to the elements. She, in all her stubborn glory, was true to form and proceeded to refuse us milk. And while I love our fresh, raw milk, we decided that it was time to stop for the year. We had already planned Thanksgiving as a good stopping point, but decided it wasn't worth the headache of retraining her to the barn for then just a few more weeks of milking. And so, we are done. Since Annabelle isn't confirmed bred yet (she's been exposed, but we don't know if she is pregnant), it will be late in the season when she comes into milk again. But, thankfully, we do have the 2 goats that we will be breeding soon here and they will provide our milk earlier in the year.

2 comments:

Red Gate said...

I have a silly question for you...We have been drinking cow's milk, and are debating milking goats. But we recently tried some raw goats milk, and it tasted soooo "goaty" it was difficult to stomach. How do you transition yourselves? Your plan is the type of thing we have in mind as well, I just can't figure out how to quickly acquire the taste.

Gina said...

Ahhh, the infamous "goaty" flavor. You know, I've only ever had our neighbor's goat milk and I honestly could taste no difference from our cow's. I have heard that the "goaty" flavor has a lot to do with the situation of the goats: what they eat, where & how they are milked, how the equipment is cleaned, whether they have a buck with them, etc. I do believe, because of our neighbor's milk, that the milk's off flavor is completely avoidable. Now, it may be a little of trial and error to figure out what affects flavor. I know that when we first began to milk our cow, I could barely tolerate the flavor. I had to chug it to get it down. I kept changing my practices and finally, it was good. (Actually, though, it could have been that the spring flush of growing grass had ended...I've heard that really affects milk taste.) I will say that you most definitely want to keep your goats away from garlic and onions because that'll really taint the flavor. Garlic-flavored milk isn't something I want to try! I guess all that to say...I don't know that I'd try to acquire the taste, but rather change the variables until there is no "goaty" taste.