my adaptation of Maggidan's Milker
 

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2.../Milker002.jpg

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2.../Milker003.jpg

The pump is a Durvet 65 ml Fixed Dose Pour-On Applicator. The syringe body is 35 cc with the threaded type needle end, but the needle is removed. The vinyl tubing came with the applicator (I only used half of it), and I used a small hose clamp and super glue jel to make sure the hose stays on the syringe body.

When in use, you are not constantly pumping the mechanism. After the milk starts to flow, it's pump....wait....wait....wait....wait....wait....pu mp....repeat.

I do finish out by hand, but that's usually just a tiny amount.

To clean it after milking, I run extremely hot water through it, then soapy water, then clean water. A couple of times a week, I run bleach water through it, too.

I am not selling these, just showing what you can make for about half of what they sell for.

Awesome Rose, thanks for the info and photo...John

Rose just went to the Durvet site thanks...I may get this for father's day...some gift huh....

Anyway, just a few questions???
1. Is this vacuum set up actually faster than milking by hand?
2. If milking by hand is actually faster than how much faster?
3. I realize everyone milks at a different pace, hand cramps, small orifices, etc. But please just generalize in a perfect world setting how much faster or slower is the pump.
4. I'm milking four goats each day so if this device is a time saver, I'm going to pursue it....thanks for any input Rose...John

Unfortunately, I don't think it's a time saver, just a hand saver. We milk our doe out in about 15 minutes, but she's one teated. :)

The real blessing is for those of us with arthritis. My milking partner has scleroderma that has affected his joints, and he can't really close his hand to milk by hand. This device makes it possible for him to milk easily and without pain.

The other thing that I like about it is that it gets the bucket away from hooves and falling hairs. :)

I made a similar one from a spray bottle pump. It helped me a lot with Glori's little FF teats, but finally my hands have gotten strong enough to milk her by hand. I couldn't hardly do it at first!

I made one real similar to Rose's. I wouldn't say it's faster than milking by hand on a doe with hand-sized teats (probably slower, in fact), but on a FF with tiny teats it was the only way I could milk her out at all.

Kathleen

I got the Maggidan milker itself, and would say it milks my "problem" girl much faster than I ever could by hand. She is five yrs old, has a very nice milk supply, but micro teats, not the softest udder either. Last year I dreaded milking her. With the hand milker I can empty her out in less than half the time it used to take me. But this is one goat with a difficult udder.

I use the Maggidan's milker on one of mine since she has a weird udder but hand milk the other one. I spend about 15 minutes all total milking out both goats and get about 3 qts daily for a combined total. I only milk once a day and still have too much milk!

Sherry in GA

Rose, I am making one as soon as I have girls to milk! I haven't seen them before, so thanks for the tip.

I had made myself one similar to Maggidan's, I have to say it is much faster for me.
I have Nigerians, and with smaller teats and some having smaller orifices, It is much faster. Like more then twice as fast for me in my situation. However, I do have to take it off a couple time and replace it, as it seems to pull a nice vacum at first, and then peters out. So I just switch back and forth between the two teats a couple times. I have little time at 4:30 am every mornig to get out there and milk, do chores then get to work,. So ya for me it is a good thing.

I made one of these yesterday and tried it today. Works great. My only problem is finding the teat cup. Nowhere could I find a 35 ml with the screw on needle. So, what I used was an old probiotics tube, I had one that had a thicker end and it fit right into the tubing. This works pretty well, the doe I used it on has good size teats, but I'm gonna have to get a smaller one for the other doe when she freshens.

Do any of you have a problem with to much vac....
Mine will have such a hard vac the teat will turn redish purple so I have to keep stopping and re secure it. I do not want to injur the teat. Any suggestions.

Oldntimes, I don't know if what I'm doing actually helps, but I know what you are saying about purple teat tips. I hold the syringe and pull down with gentle traction, trying to "even out" the suction to the entire teat rather than the tip. It seems to prevent the congestion . . . and also, the congestion can easily stop the flow altogether, and gentle traction prevents that too, so I can empty the udder without doing much hand stripping after.

The pump that I use has adjustments for how many cc's it can deliver at a time, so I guess you could adjust it there. Haven't had any problems otherwise. We don't pump fast.

Mine has that adjustment too, so you can apply less pressure, just takes a little longer.

Thanks for the info - I will be tucking this away for future review since my 3 are babies yet.

Stars...if you'll PM me your snail mail address, I'll send you a 35 cc syringe body with the other tip.

Believe it or not, in the automotive dept at Wal-Mart, there's a syringe looking thing that's designed for mixing oil with gas for weedeaters and chainsaws. It is a good size, too, and it has a long nozzle that fits well into the vinyl tubing.

It's called a MixMizer. It's 60 cc, so it would work for older, larger teated goats.
http://www.autobarn.net/mix2cycfuelm.html

Idahoe, Thanks for the little tip, I will try that in the morning.

Rose, yes mine also has adjustment, I have tried that, and if I adjust it , it seems to loose suction faster.

I play around with different teat cups. I must say I could not do with out it with some of these smaller teat. Some of the girls have the nicer larger teats, but others with smaller ones, these little contraptions save my sanity!!!

But I tell ya, when I can go down in the morning and milk the one with smaller teats and get a Quart of milk( Nigies) in a few minutes I am just a happy go lucky gal... :dance:

Rose, I sent you a PM, I appreciate it. It really is a handy little gadget.

I was looking at the Maggidan's Milker. They also offer jugs with the tube attached to the lid, no dust or anything can get in the milk. :) I was just thinking that it might be fairly easy to make a set up with two containers so the milk goes into a smaller container that is setting inside a larger container of ice. The milk would start cooling before I even finished milking. I think I'm going to work on making some kind of setup like that.

The page I found didn't have a price on the Durvet 65 ml Fixed Dose Pour-On Applicator. Can you tell us how much yours cost and I assume you got it at a farm store?

I got it at Hirsch Feed in Thayer, Missouri. It's in the range of $20, but I was getting other stuff, too, so I'm not completely sure of the exact price.

I wasn't happy with my Maggidans. It broke a blood vessel within the first few minutes. I changed the setting and it kept falling off the teat. Not only that, the hose was always falling off at either one end or the other.

After two days, my ewe was completely distraught, refused feed (even in the pasture) and totally uncatchable. I had tried handmilking her, but she's a first timer and was kicking the bucket so I figured the milker would be a good solution; for her, it wasn't. I'd have been better off losing a few buckets of milk and getting a longer lactation. I'm handmilking the second ewe as I don't want to risk it.

I seen that someone made one out of a sprayer bottle and some tubing. Looks like it works real well, for just a few bucks.

Here is a link to the pump that the MaggieDan's uses http://www.americanlivestock.com/pc-...-injector.aspx

The one I'm using is 65 ml, as opposed to 12.5 ml.

With mine, you 'squeeze....wait....squeeze." Easier on the hands. :)

What about the half gallon mason jars and put a small hole in the top of the wide mothe canning lid? Super cheap would work fantastic.

Thanks for linking to this post, Rose, very helpful.

Reese

Is there another way to build such a thing that doesn't rely totally on suction? I'm thinking of one that manually massages the teat more like a suckling kid or milking hand.

Question?
 

Why would it be possible to put a "Y" fitting in the tubing, use a second syringe body, and milk both teats at once? It might be a bit tricky to get both of 'em on the teats & get vaccuum started, but after that, it should work. I'm sooooo glad to have found this. I gave up my last milk goat because of arthritis. And I don't have $1500 for a milking machine for one or two goats.

Madfarmer

We were wondering the same thing. Just haven't taken the time to chase down a Y the right size.

I forgot to subscribe to this last time it was up, so going to do so now. Thanks for posting it, and thanks for bumping it up.

Reese

Thanks for posting this, Rose. I'm going to try it with my mini Alpine with the tiny teats and the wonderful milk. I always save her for last, as it's such a pain to milk her. I think she's starting to feel slighted. :)

NeHi

Do the does kick this off if they dont like it?

I made one out of a spray pump last summer for my problem milker when I broke my wrist, but it wouldnt suck anything out. It would suck the teat against the syringe body, but then suction would quit and it would just stay there, sucked against the plastic. She kicked it off a lot, too. She has little orifices and kicks almost nonstop. I hate milking her, but I love her milk.

Do you think a stronger suction would work? Maybe a more "heavy duty" spray bottle top, or something like what you have? What is that thing, anyway? It looks like what you spray roundup out of... Is it like that?

I've milked three does with it. Nobody has kicked it off.

Oh, good!

Well, I went to that Durvet website, and there are no distributers in Michigan, apparently. Great. Does anyone know where I could get something else like that, maybe? This website doesnt seem to ship... darn. I dont want to buy that maggidans one; its too pricey. I'd rather make one.

I usually avoid plastic at all costs but for this purpose I think it would be better
safe than sorry.

Your local feed store should be able to order one. PM me if they can't.

Has anyone tried to use one of these on a cow? I've been looking around and can't seem to find any threads that say so.... My wrists and shoulders have been especially bad lately and I can hardly milk after about 5 minutes, so I need something to kinda lighten my load. Thanks!

I was at walmart the other day and they had the y that may work on clearance in the garden stuff I think it went with the off brand hydro gardening things.

There is also the Udderly EZ http://1222430.estore.networksolutio...tail.bok?no=21 It has a size for ND's also although it is a bit more expensive that the Maggidan's. I've been thinking of getting the Maggidan's or making one myself. I also thought of the Y. It'll be interesting to see if anyone does try it. And thanks Lizzieag for the link to the pump.