The worms are spinning!

Here is some great info about the worms from Terry:
The silk worms have finally given up the eating binge and started spinning. It takes two days for a silk worm to spin a cocoon. At last count we have about 500 silk worms. We figure that it will be several days before they all spin up so come on in and watch them for a while. They do some really great figure 8’s with their mouth and it takes them about two days to finish the task. When they are done they have a cocoon you can’t see through.

The plan is to let some of the silk worms go thru the entire cycle and work their way out of the cocoon into the world as a moth. When that process starts we will let you all know so those following the saga can come in and observe. It is a very fascinating process and worth the trip to TYF.

Meantime, I want to thank Nancy and her husband Jim for all the work they did bringing the daily bags of mulberry leaves. Towards the end of the process we have gone thru two big shopping bags of leaves a day. It has been a lot of picking of leaves out in the heat, not to mention the washing before feeding.

If you ever decide to try raising some silk worms on your own for spinning, keep in mind that what fit in a tiny ½ sheet cake box ended up needing my whole dining room table. Then ask Nancy about how her neighbor’s tree looks now that we have fed 500 silk worms for three weeks. And we only ordered two hundred eggs. The moral of the story is: COUNT YOUR EGGS BEFORE THEY HATCH!

Silk facts quoted from a 1984 National Geographic
It takes 110 silk cocoons to make a tie
330 to make a blouse
3,000 to make a kimono which would consume 135 pounds of mulberry leaves