4 questions about kidding and milking from a newbie

[Angie]

I am kinda new to this. I have 3 does due soon. I wasn't real careful with the breeding dates (dealing with death in the family). I know when the one was bred and should be due around the first week of March (forget this cold weather kidding) and the others should be due soon after. Here area few questions I have.
1. The older doe already has a big udder. Is this normal and if so for how long before she gives birth?
2. what do you do with all the milk? Is there someone who buys it?
3. all my goats run free. They stay at the barn which is really far off the road and not close to the house. I will pen them up when the babies come but can I keep the buck around? will he hurt the babies?
4. How long do you leave the babies on the mother before you take them off and start to milk them for yourself?
Thanks!!!

[Patty0315]

Does uder up at different times. The older one is bigger because she has had milk before.

You can do all types of things with the milk. Make butter , cheese , milk to drink , feed it to the chickens , raise a calf or pigs on it.

I would not let most bucks in with babies , its not worth the chance of them getting hurt.

You can leave the babies on for a long time and still milk Mom. Pen the kids up at night , milk mom in the Am and then turn the kids loose.

You may want to read up on CAe and CL and see what you want to do about it.

Patty

[DocM]

1. The older doe already has a big udder. Is this normal and if so for how long before she gives birth?

An udder is not a predictable way to determine when birth is imminent. Learn to recognize the ligament differences near the tail. For what it's worth, if your goat has a big udder, it won't be much longer.

2. what do you do with all the milk? Is there someone who buys it?

The goat kids drink a pretty good portion of it to begin with. My family drinks much of whats left. I make cheese and yogurt too. The rest is sold by word of mouth. You need to know the laws for selling milk in your own state. Each is different. If it's legal to sell in your area, a good place to start is by posting notices on community bullitin boards.

3. all my goats run free. They stay at the barn which is really far off the road and not close to the house. I will pen them up when the babies come but can I keep the buck around? will he hurt the babies?

He might. Or he might not. What he will do is rebreed your goats, and that wouldn't be healthy for them.

4. How long do you leave the babies on the mother before you take them off and start to milk them for yourself?

Kids are typically weaned at 3 months. However, you should be able to milk the goats for your own use at the same time, depending on how much your goats give. After 3 weeks, I pen my babies up at night separate from the dams and milk them in the morning.