Hi!
I was also looking for a way to feed my juvenile Beardie silkworms for cheap. So, I ordered 500+ Silkworm eggs from Mulberry Farms on 6/3 for $12.99 (plus $11 for 2-day shipping). They arrived super fast on 6/5 (I recommend the hold for pickup at the post office option so they don't cook in your mailbox if you're in a hot climate). I followed the directions on the MF website to hatch them. It was actually extremely easy. Fortunately for us, because our beardie's tank is in the smallest bedroom, the room was the PERFECT temperature for the eggs. (They recommend 80-85°. If your room is cooler than this, you might need an incubator.) By 6/11 we had teeny tiny worm hatchlings! We fed silkworm chow at first, since the hatchlings don't have very strong jaws. Once they got bigger, I switched them to fresh mulberry leaves (I'm actually very lucky... My parents have about 12 large mulberry trees on their 4 acre property.) Once they started eating the leaves, everything was easy-peasy. My biggest issue was the chow... It is sticky and you have to cook it a certain way and it smells bad and has to stay refrigerated once it's cooked. Plus the tiny hatchling worms would climb up on it and it was a total pain to CAREFULLY transfer them off. They would use silk to attach themselves to it as well. That was frustrating, lol.
What I did (which was a bit OCD, I fully admit ?) was to count out 50 of the worms into plastic shoeboxes I got at Walmart for $.88/each. So that part was very time consuming, counting out all the worms. But... I'm glad I did because I actually ended up with 850 worms! ? MF guarantees 500+. (They also had a 200+ option for $9.99 I believe). I did take the time to transfer the worms to fresh leaves multiple times per week when they were tiny, placing the worms onto the new leaves and into the clean shoebox with a cheap napkin underneath to catch their poo. If you're extremely busy, you probably wouldn't have to do this, just put fresh leaves in and let the worms migrate to them. Just be sure to dump the poo out every couple of days. I'm not sure if it would affect your survival rate though.
Of my 850 hatchlings, I'd guess 750 of them survived to full size. So ultimately I ended up with 750 silkworms for about $24. ? Plus I spent about $25 in materials (silkworm chow, shoe boxes, napkins) that I can reuse. I think it's VERY worth while if you're willing to put in a little time and effort. Just keep in mind, they won't be big enough to feed to your dragon until about 2 weeks after hatching (so about 3 weeks from when you place the order). So it's a bit of a long term commitment, but it really pays off. I LOVE Silkies because they don't stink, they keep in stackable plastic shoe boxes perfectly, and they're super healthy for my beardie. I wish you loads of luck and hope everything works out!
~Brandi