silkworm eggs started hatching, too late to chill rest ?
- Thread starter kingofnobbys
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kingofnobbys
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AHBD":39ye397f said:Great job ! I wish I had the patience + time to raise them.I have a huge mulberry tree in my back yard, at least my beardies enjoy the leaves when they're in the mood for them.
I still may give it a try one day.
I loved fresh mulberries as a kid, hot and cold mulberry pies and tarts, and homemade mulberry jam when I was a kid and we raided the local mulberry tree (we'd take home buckets full of the berries and gorge ourselves on the berries straight off the tree).
IMO the hardest part of raising them is getting hold of fresh mulberry leaves .... the rest is easy.
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
The moths are dead, so the first batch of eggs are now in the fridge.
More cocoons to hatch (about 20).
Here are some of my now 11 day old baby silkworms
9mm long , making fast work of a leave I put in with them only 3 hours ago.
More cocoons to hatch (about 20).
Here are some of my now 11 day old baby silkworms
9mm long , making fast work of a leave I put in with them only 3 hours ago.
Do they thrive in room temperature, or do you have a heating element to give them a boost?
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
No heating other than my house's big Fujitsu Split R/cycle Aircon that is running 24/7 and has been since about mid April , is set to hold the living area at about 26oC during the day , 22-23oC o/night.
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
Last the big silkworms were eaten today.
Started off another batch of my chilled eggs from October 2016.
Started off another batch of my chilled eggs from October 2016.
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
Baby worms are now in a 4.5L ClearVue Tub , currently have a lid that's NOT ventilated on them.
Polishing off 2 big fresh mulberry leaves per day.
Polishing off 2 big fresh mulberry leaves per day.
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
Worms are 18 days old , and up to 18-20mm long now , doubled in size in last week
Introducing them to chow as I'm down to my last dozen fresh leaves and I want to save these for the next batch of eggs that are "incubating" now and should start hatching in next few days to week.
Introducing them to chow as I'm down to my last dozen fresh leaves and I want to save these for the next batch of eggs that are "incubating" now and should start hatching in next few days to week.
Those are looking really nice!
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
July batch of baby silkworms are now as big as 33mm (the largest ones). Actually a range of sizes from 10mm - 33mm.
The eggs I got out to hatch a week or so ago are now starting to hatch , glad I saved about a dozen of those fresh mulberry leaves rather than using them all.
Good thing my silkworms tubs are airtight .... got a baby spider (just hatched huntsmen spiders) plague in my living area at the moment .... about 20 - 30 baby huntsmen on crawling about upsidedown on my ceiling and a few dropping down on webs . They'd love and make fast work of my newly hatched baby silkworms given the chance .... guess spring is not too far off if they are hatching.
The eggs I got out to hatch a week or so ago are now starting to hatch , glad I saved about a dozen of those fresh mulberry leaves rather than using them all.
Good thing my silkworms tubs are airtight .... got a baby spider (just hatched huntsmen spiders) plague in my living area at the moment .... about 20 - 30 baby huntsmen on crawling about upsidedown on my ceiling and a few dropping down on webs . They'd love and make fast work of my newly hatched baby silkworms given the chance .... guess spring is not too far off if they are hatching.
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
batch1 (now up to 33mm long)
note : diameter the 5c coin is 19.00mm.
batch2 (1 - 2days old and still hatching) , added a bit of damp paper towel to the tub (just under the lid as humidity is very low here this week , under 30% relative humidity and the leaf was drying out too fast even with the airtight lid on and I don't have a lot of mulberry leaves on hand to waste.).
note : diameter the 5c coin is 19.00mm.
batch2 (1 - 2days old and still hatching) , added a bit of damp paper towel to the tub (just under the lid as humidity is very low here this week , under 30% relative humidity and the leaf was drying out too fast even with the airtight lid on and I don't have a lot of mulberry leaves on hand to waste.).
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
Finally big enough to use as feeders , Peppa scored 4 yesterday, Toothless scored 4 today.
Chose the biggest ones which were about 1.5 - 2 inches long.
The first batch are going through 25g of chow ( powder basis ) per day now.
Here the batch1 silks are : the medium ones are nice plump !!! Peppa hoovered her 4 down.
and the newest hatchling silkworms :
Chose the biggest ones which were about 1.5 - 2 inches long.
The first batch are going through 25g of chow ( powder basis ) per day now.
Here the batch1 silks are : the medium ones are nice plump !!! Peppa hoovered her 4 down.
and the newest hatchling silkworms :
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
16g chow (powder basis) per day . Getting tedious cooking up two batches of 32-40g of chow every couple of days.
Into the last few leaves from 2 months ago now .... wont be able to used this batch of leaves much longer as getting dry/wilted looking now. Still no fresh mulberry leaves advertised yet on GumTree, maybe in a week or two ??
Rate I'm feeding the BIG and LGE and MED silkworms to the 2 beardies and 2 bluetongues , I'll never use them all from the July batch before they pupate. Looks like I'll have bumper crop of cocoons and moths, and thousands of eggs.
Into the last few leaves from 2 months ago now .... wont be able to used this batch of leaves much longer as getting dry/wilted looking now. Still no fresh mulberry leaves advertised yet on GumTree, maybe in a week or two ??
Rate I'm feeding the BIG and LGE and MED silkworms to the 2 beardies and 2 bluetongues , I'll never use them all from the July batch before they pupate. Looks like I'll have bumper crop of cocoons and moths, and thousands of eggs.
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
At last .... just saw an advert on GumTree , 50 mulberry leaves for $5 ( from Western Sydney ) .... just in the knick of time as the last 4 leaves (from early June) are horribly wilted and I'm now using 32g of chow (powder basis) per day to feed my silkworms .... so getting expensive.
Have a couple of large silkworms now forming cocoons (this is from my July batch).
Have a couple of large silkworms now forming cocoons (this is from my July batch).
kingofnobbys
BD.org Sicko
Down to only about 100 LARGE silkworms , making some cocoons now + 30 medium silkworms from the July batch, looks like about 50 babies hatched so far from the August batch .
Gone through a 250g bag of chow powder in 2 weeks . Nearly all gone. No more of the mulberry leaves left from the batch I bought back in mid June. Another 250g bag of chow powder on order, will be cutting it fine if it doesn't get here before Monday.
Might have to blanch some of the large silkworms and freeze them if I run out of chow.
Gone through a 250g bag of chow powder in 2 weeks . Nearly all gone. No more of the mulberry leaves left from the batch I bought back in mid June. Another 250g bag of chow powder on order, will be cutting it fine if it doesn't get here before Monday.
Might have to blanch some of the large silkworms and freeze them if I run out of chow.
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