Silkworms Care

[Remkon]

So... All my eggs have hatched, time for an update!

Guess how many silks I have now:

It's still amazing how much they grow, the biggest ones are around 2/3 of their final size while the babies are now 1 week old and still tiny.


The bigger ones are of the first batch of eggs which came from maybe 50 moths...
I have given away a lot of the eggs of the first batch so now I have just around 100 left as I feed my chams around 5 every feeding too, I'm keeping 60 for breeding and the rest is omnoms for the chams.
The little black dots are the newer babies, they are of the 2nd load of moths which were around 150 moths (guessing)... I have given away about half of the eggs of that load, if you count the worms you know why.

The plan now is to keep at least 250 of the latest hatch lings to breed and I will try to sell the eggs produced by them... If the die off remains neglect able I will raise more than the 250 as I can easily give away the eggs.
I'll try to sell the eggs since they do not cost any chow... Eggs are being sold here for 30€ per 500 and I have seen a store asking 0.50€ per 'adult' worm so there's my motivation to try and make a buck..

Currently my care for the small ones is just placing fresh chow next to the old one and hoping they'll transfer... I actually noticed that when kept well ventilated the chow will just dry out instead of mold and they will also still eat it but they prefer the fresh chunks.
Cleaning with just water proves to still work well, having little more die off than before but I simplified my care to save time and I have more to care for so that explains why, @Twitchet is successfully raising them now too and I am confident she will have her own offspring in a few months.

 

[Twitchet]

Pretty impressive Remko, That is some serious stuff you have there- I wanted to re read this thread so I'm pleased it's appeared like magic again, I'm interested in how much food you give them, I think i haven't fed quite enough- I am worried it will go mouldy but think I need to up what i give them, Yes definitely i have had fewer die since i stopped ark-klens sterilising everything- I just do like you said- scrub with water and a pan scourer, I'm patiently waiting for my big guys to start making silk- I'll going to read though again to prepare better.
I still can't stop looking at the really huge silks and thinking how much the parsons would like them- a bit like Wile.E Coyote looking at the roadrunner and seeing a delicious cooked turkey!
Thank you Silkworm whisperer.

 

[Remkon]

The little ones get to much. It's hard to give them a big enough surface area to sit on and have them finish it all.

I'm now trying to cut thin slices of chow, like carpaccio thin so I don't waste a lot of chow.
If they can't get a good spot to eat they will try to crawl out of the container so giving them enough space is important, this will also limit die off as the smaller worms tend to suffer under their bigger brothers.

Molding usually starts on the bottom of the chow where it stays moist longest so having transparent containers will help, but like I said with enough ventilation it should just dry out and you won't have mold. If you still do try making your chow using less water.

I'm the same with my breeding group, I'm close to finishing my feeder group and I know how much my Panther loves silks ... At least there's enough new worms coming his way in a week or two when the babies are big enough.

 

[Twitchet]

I'll try slicing thinner- I've tried slicing strips- I bought a garlic press to squish the chow through- quite good as It breaks it up a bit, I saw a woman using piping bags and piping lines- i tried that but decided the chow dries way too quick and they dont eat it, i've tried little dollops of chow and the last mix i made I did make it much thicker which seemed good. I always used to keep mine on mesh but they'd end up weaving silk them pooing on the silk and they seem cleaner without the mesh- like the paper liner idea though so am transferring some babies over to new tubs and will line their new boxes.
I now have a gap of silks- big big ones- tiny teeny ones- no one in between Grow babies! Grow!