My first experience with silkworms

[Katacara]

Well I think my first experience with silkworms is going well, however I'm going to be drowning in moths and eggs soon...

This may be a problem...

 

[Katacara]

And I forgot to mention that I still have worms that are cocooning. That batch above are about 2/3 of the cocoons I will have... Eggs anyone??

Any tips about what to do next??

 

[Longhorn1234]

Did you buy eggs or silkworms? Also, where did you get them?

 

[Scottsquatch]

I'd be interested in eggs...

 

[jamest0o0]

Do you have worms for sale?

 

[Panthro413]

Did you buy eggs or silkworms? Also, where did you get them?

Can buy some from coastal silk worms or ebay.. plenty more options. Those are just my personal ones.

 

[Andee]

How are the moths doing that already hatched?

 

[zordtaz]

Wow!! This is a lot. You should start sell eggs out. So make extra money. I would keep all the eggs separate on petri dish 200-300 eggs per dish and put in the fridge. Once you sold the eggs and it is ready to ship it out. Oh, it is better to have moth lay egg on paper towel or baking paper. So you can cut it and put in the dish easily. When the moth lay their eggs, just put the cup cover it so moth will lay eggs within the boundary of cup

 

[Andee]

I have found cups to be useless in my opinion, at least at the amount that KataCara will have. She will have too many pairs to be able to baby sit. She will need them to pair off as normally as possible with maybe moving a male here and there closer to females if necessary. I honestly would be interested in around 300 eggs @Katacara, when time comes. I am not sure if I will have enough to breed off for only one generation of the whites you sent. Not 100% of course, but I will let you know in a week or so when your eggs will be ready to sell.

 

[Andee]

And if you want to breed and sell regularly keep at least another 200 worms to breed purely, that's not even counting feeding off.

 

[Katacara]

Thanks for your replies everyone!

@Scottsquatch I can let you (and everyone) know when I have eggs available. I am still working out the details but they will be available for sale. And I like your profile pic btw, glad I could help with that

@jamest0o0 I have 1 order of jumbos left (I think), if I do they will be very close to cocooning. What did you do, miss my ad check it out in the market section, and if your interested pm me.

@Andee where to begin... Huge thank you for all the help and advice!! I haven't had any cocoons hatch yet, I'm am eagerly awaiting the first! I feel like a soon to be father in one of those old cartoons, just pacing back and forth chain smoking in the waiting room until the delivery . I am hoping to keep and breed regularly (actually I'm hoping to always have availability we will see how that goes). I have more eggs on the way from coastal to help fill in the gap created when the last batch of eggs I got did not hatch (I got those off eBay).

I am hoping to use the cup method, I think I have a plan... it will probably not work but I'm keeping my fingers crossed because it would make it so much easier!

Anyone who would like eggs before going in the refrigerator is welcome to pm me

 

[Andee]

You should have some cocoons who have hatched from the look of your pics. There are some obvious holes.

 

[Katacara]

Yah, my boys are not going to be helping me with silkworm cocoons anymore. They made huge holes! I'm just hoping it doesn't kill my stock!!

 

[Andee]

 

[Katacara]

I think that may have been the same face I made... then quickly followed by and finally

 

[Longhorn1234]

Were you feeding chow or mulberry leaves to the worms? There are so many cocoons that you must have used a lot of whatever you used to feed them haha

 

[Katacara]

I went from chow, to leaves, then back to chow

 

[Katacara]

I am getting very frustrated that 0 of my cocoons have hatched yet... Any tips and suggestions to help this along would be great!!

Right now I have them at room temperature, and their light schedule is about 13 on 11 off. Do you think I should put them under a heat bulb during the day! Should the lighting schedule be different?

 

[Andee]

What time did they cocoon?

 

[zordtaz]

It might take up to 2 weeks. Mine is come out from cocoon after 12 days. They always get out from cocoon around 7-9 in the morning. You can raise the temperature to 75-80. It might help them come out early. Also, I have experienced before that they can't come out from cocoon if they cocoon is too tick. I always cut off top off that just to be sure that they can come out. Hope this help