The Original Henry Milker

[mystang89]

I finished building the milking station and purchased an Original Henry Milker which arrived today. I read the directions, watched youtube videos on how it works and it doesn't seem that difficult at all. I was so excited to finally milk my own sheep.

I hooked everything up as instructed, cleaned the teat and udder, expressed a couple streams of milk by hand, then placed the cup on Betsy's teat and began to pump the vacuum up to 10psi. The teat enlarged..and enlarged...and enlarged but nothing came out. The instructions say it is recommended not to go past 10psi but since they are talking about goats I figured maybe sheep are different, so I went to 15 psi and still nothing. I released all the pressure and let my poor Betsy have a minute to herself. I tried again and actually managed to get a few drips of milk to come out but this time the milk was tinged red. It looked exactly like Strawberry milk. I stopped and relieved her by hand, waited a bit and tried by hand again. The milk came out nice and white, just the way it was supposed to.

This happened on both sides. Needless to say, once my bubble was burst and I found out I wasn't getting any highly anticipated milk I was quite frustrated.

Does anyone, especially those who may milk sheep, have any experience with the Original Henry Milker? Maybe you had the same thing happen as me and it works well now or perhaps it works well and I'm doing something wrong, which is completely in the realm of possibility.

 

[Latestarter]

Sorry, I can't help, but hoping it works out for you and Betsy... Sounds like maybe hand milking is the way to go...

 

[mystang89]

I tried it again today and the little I got was tinged red again.

Milking from the same nipple afterwards by hand and this is what it is.

It's still tinged barely but I think that's because I didn't wash the bottle out before I milked by hand.

Think I'm going to try for a refund if I can ever get in touch with them. They don't answer my texts, return calls, and besides the one email I received from them about late shipping, haven't communicated via email about the product either.

 

[Latestarter]

Sounds to me like the machine is breaking capillaries... Not such a good thing. Thinking back now after you stating they are not responding back to you, I believe there was another past member who had bad results with the same folks and milker. I can't recall how that all turned out but I don't think it was good. Really hope you can get it taken care of. Sorry...

 

[farmerjan]

If there is no pulsation, then you will not get milk out of them. There has to be a give and take of the pressure. The milk flows down into the lower end of the teat but without any squeeze and release, it will not just fall out of the end of the teat. The milk would run out of the teat all the time if there wasn't a muscle that kept it in. The whole Idea of prepping the udder is to cause oxytocin to be released which will allow the muscle to relax, and the milk to flow.The lambs, kids and calves do that by butting. But if you watch them, they are constantly sucking, releasing, swallowing etc. They just don't pull.

When you milk by hand it is basically a "squeeze and release" so the milk that is in the lower part of the udder is forced out, then the release allows the milk canals to fill again so you can squeeze it out.

Yes you caused the small capillaries to break which is what caused the bloody milk. It often happens if an animal butts or hits the udder on something...along the line of getting a bruise, but it shows up as blood in the milk.

 

[mystang89]

Thanks for the breakdown! Lot of info I didn't know. I had watched this video

about the milker which is what made me think it was going to be easy. I didn't notice any pulsating during the video but maybe that was what her squeezing the pump simulated

Either way, I won't be using that on my sheep again. I tried using my wife's breast pump on the sheep but I guess it didn't have enough suction even at highest settings. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

 

[Latestarter]

Is there some reason why you can't just hand milk? I mean it isn't difficult and doesn't take long... I can milk almost a gallon out of my girl in about 15 minutes and that's doing one side at a time. If it's the debris you're concerned about, take some time and shear her clean around her udder and back legs and that should alleviate most debris. Anything else should be removed when you filter the milk.

 

[mystang89]

One of the reasons I haven't done a full milking by hand right now is because my dominant hands is still recovering from the jigsaw incident and it's painful to squeeze. Probably something I really do need to just look past though. Nothing good ever came because people laid back and waited for the easy way.

I'm am concerned about the debris getting in the bucket but when I think about sheering, even partially, I remember cutting open the poor sheeps stomach and I get cold feet again. I've been trying to get someone over to shear then but there isn't anyone around here. Again, probably something I need to overcome, I just hate hurting my sheep for no good reason.

 

[farmerjan]

There are small battery operated type shears. Something along the line of what a barber uses to trim up a man's neck, there are the ones that show people use on cattle to "clean up" around more sensitive areas of a cow. I don't show, but have seen different of the "professional" fitters using them on a cows head around the eyes etc. If you were to do it regular so the wool didn't get too thick then I don't see why they couldn't be the answer for around the udder on a sheep.
Don't know what your "recovery" is or from what injury on your dominant hand. But when I had surgery to reattach a tendon in my "dominant" right hand, when they had me doing all sorts of rehab, and got me on the "squeeze the rubber ball" thing, there was no better therapy than to milk once I could get the hand to work. And make the less dominant hand work equally. It is alot more comfortable for the animal, and gets you into a rhythm to use both. Really, it is good so that you don't get one hand too tired. It will feel funny, and the less dominant one will get tired quicker, but it will build both up.

 

[farmerjan]

I watched that video and it must be that the regular squeezing she was doing was the "pulsating" that is needed to get the milk to flow; looks like the vacuum varied a little as she squeezed but I don't know. It may take a little bit of practice. Interesting little piece of equipment.