Silkie egg's still not hatched.

[fresnowitte]

Barbara,
How are Zak & Wheezie? I saw your pictorial, but it took us to May of 2008.
zoomommi :shock:

They are doing fine they are bruamting right now.
I wish they would wake up I miss them.
You can always get updates on them in the link to their thread in my signature.
Entries on that thread have been slow lately as they are sleeping.
But there are more recent pic's of them in the later pages of the thread.
I'll try to get them up this weekend if they cooperate I'll post some new pic's.

Thanks for asking.

Did you have any problems raising your last batch of silks on mulberry leaves? I know that when they have first hatched, you must feed them 'baby' leaves------because their jaws are not strong enough to chew the tougher, older leaves.

I'm not sure about anyone else but I found it impossible to move the babies to the fresh leaves when I tried to grow them last year. So that's why I opted to try the commercial chow. The chow doesn't dry out as fast as the leaves do. So I'm hoping that they will get strong enough to find their way to fresh chow without me having to try and move them. To me this is the hard part the first 5 days after hatching. I have ordered the small ones before and grown them to adult without any problems. It's just the hatching to 5 days I really struggle with. How does one move them during that period when they are not strong enough to move to the fresh food on their own? They are so small and delicate I'm afraid of damaging them. I've been moving them back to the food when they wonder off to the edges of the dish with a tooth pick. Using the tooth pick I move it past the back end of the worm the silk strains will cling onto the tooth pick then I drag them across a fresh piece of chow to get them off the tooth pick. Please tell me if you know a easier way of doing this.

Okay I just looked at them and they are about 4 times bigger than when they hatched. They are no-longer black fuzzy threads they now look like silk worms. Yay! When they hatched _ now___

 

[brunoboy]

I've never tried to move the babies--------why are you moving them? Into a larger petri dish?

 

[fresnowitte]

I've never tried to move the babies--------why are you moving them? Into a larger petri dish?

Several have wondered away from the food an up the sides of the petri dish. I just added chow for the ones that weren't climbing the sides. They were not big enough or should I say strong enough yet to find their way back to the chow. A couple of the ones that I didn't get to soon enough with chow died. The ones that climbed the sides of the dish were the ones I had to move back to the food source.

I don't need to worry about it now they are big enough to find their way now. :mrgreen:

 

[erdeem]

Hi all.... how long usually the egg hatch? Mine is still not hatched yet. The moth laid them on early June and now it's almost 20 days. I don't have an incubator. The eggs stick on paper towel and they are in a plastic shoe box/tupperware box. What should I do? and how can I find out if this would work.... or this is just an endless wait :?